A New Development
by SilverBakura86
Summary: Haruka Nanase doesn't understand the concepts of love, all he knows is he loves water and mackerel. But his childhood friend, Rin Matsuoka, has gone back to his normal self and is together with everyone once more, and Haruka is starting to feel unknown emotions. Haruka, not understanding any of this, is just trying to ignore it...but that is much easier said then done. RinHaru
1. Chapter 1

**This is a story I have planned for a while. It originally started out as a fanfic I was writing for a friend but it ended up becoming larger than I actually wanted and decided I should post it here. This story is a RinHaru one, so if you don't like RinHaru then you can either endure it or leave. (I am sorry if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes)**

**Now before you read this, I will just say this: Makoto is out of character in this, but in a way I see him as slightly in character. He is not going to be mainly involved in the story for a bit but his personality will probably shock you. I do not want to spoil anything but if you are a Makoto lover, please don't be mad, it is for the story. I, myself, love Makoto and thought that the way I portrayed him made him more interesting. If you do love Makoto it is even better for it will conflict with your emotions and that's what I'm aiming for. But like I said, that side of him won't be seen for a while.**

**Now please enjoy the story!**

**Disclaimer: Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

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A raven haired teen emerged from the water and shook his hair to flick it out of his face. He noticed all the other people swimming around him and frowned, he didn't like joint training with Samezuka Academy. When he had normal training with the others it was never as serious and he could just drift through the water, but joint training was boring and loud since the Samezuka captain would yell at everyone to go faster.

Haruka sighed and sank down into the water so half his face was submerged, the only reason they had joint training was because the pool in Iwatobi needed to be cleaned since so many leaves had fallen in it and rotted overnight. Haruka looked up to see his red haired friend, Rin, talking to a grey haired teen. The fight they had at regionals happened two weeks ago and was long behind them, since Rin was back to his normal self and even transferred to Iwatobi. Rin was asked why he wanted to transfer, and his answer was:

"Because I want to swim with my team again"

Both were glad to be swimming together again and the two of them act like children around each other, as quoted from Makoto, and were both assigned by Gou to clean the pool in Iwatobi once joint training was over.

Haruka sighed, he loved swimming, but he didn't like cleaning pools. Maybe with Rin it would be better though.

Thinking of Rin, Haruka remembered he wanted to have a race today. Since both admitting they just wanted to swim with the other, their races were all in good fun. But their races almost always resulted in a tie, and if the other person ever won by just a little bit, the loser would demand a rematch. Haruka didn't know what Rin did to him, but whatever he did made Haruka much more competitive against the red head.

But at that moment Haruka was feeling lonely in the water, and he wanted Rin to be swimming next to him.

"Rin!" Haruka called, looking above the edge of the pool to see said teen turn towards him.

"Ah, just a minute Haru! I'm talking to Nitori!" he replied.

Haruka's brow creased. Usually Rin came straight over to him when he called for him, and Rin surely remembered challenging Haruka to a race today, right? So why wasn't he coming over? Why was this Nitori kid so important?

He peeked above the edge of the pool to see the two of them talking and smiling at the other, making his eyes narrow. What were they talking about? Why was Rin smiling? Why wasn't he coming over? Rin should have been coming over.

Haruka's grip on the pool edge tightened and he called Rin's name again,

"Rin!"

The red head turned to Haruka again and chuckled lightly, seeing only half the teen's face since he was only slightly raised above the edge of the pool.

"Yeah, yeah I'm coming! Sorry Nitori, tell me about it some other time"

"Y-yes Rin senpai!" the smaller teen responded before Rin walked toward the glaring raven haired swimmer.

"Well aren't you impatient today?" he smirked, bending over the teen in the pool "I challenged you to a race today, didn't I?"

"You did," Haruka replied "and what were you talking about with the grey haired guy?"

"Who? Nitori?" Rin questioned, seeing Haruka nod "He was just telling me how his swimming time has slowly been improving. It's good for him really, he thought he'd never improve"

"You don't really care, you're just being nice" Haruka grumbled, sinking down into the water.

Rin's eyebrow raised slightly, wondering where this rude attitude came from. He examined his friends expression to see him pouting, making Rin smirk and show his sharp teeth.

"Awww, is little Haru sulking because I'm not giving him all my attention?" Rin teased in a sickly sweet voice.

Haruka's eyebrows furrowed and he began to lift himself out of the pool, knowing Rin would just move out of the way. To his surprise, when he looked back up, the red head was only inches away from his face and still smirking. Haruka almost slipped back in from shock but Rin quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him up.

"When I get out of the pool you're ment to move" Haruka frowned, ripping his hand out of Rin's grip.

"Well you didn't answer my question, are you jealous because I have other friends then just you now?" Rin's smirk widened as Haruka stiffened slightly.

The raven haired teen said nothing and just walked in the lane next to him, getting up on the divers block "You said you wanted a race"

Rin sighed and stood on the diving block next to Haruka, then turned towards a tall brunet who was talking to a small blonde haired teen and a taller, blue haired teen.

"Oi, Makoto!" Makoto turned to him and gave him a questioning look "Time me and Haru would you?"

Makoto nodded and walked toward them, holding the stopwatch that was around his neck. He didn't bother getting another since their times were so close.

People stopped swimming and talking to see the two race each other, they all knew Rin was a great swimmer since he was previously on their team. But they also knew Haruka was just as good a swimmer since they've seen him swimming.

"All right..." Makoto said, holding up the stopwatch and keeping his finger on the large button "Ready...set...GO!"

The race ended like it always did, in a tie. Now the two teens were cleaning out the pool in Iwatobi with large nets and three giant bags of chlorine next to them. Makoto wanted to help, but he needed to babysit Ren and Ran since his parents were going out as soon as he got home.

Nagisa got out of it by saying he needed to study, which no one believed. But Rei backed him up by saying he was studying with Nagisa, since they were in the same class. They could all see this was true since Nagisa had such a sulky look on his face. Nagisa's grades had been going up lately, from D's to C's, sometimes even B's. Even though the blonde was grateful that Rei was helping him, he still whined about it.

Gou absolutely refused to help, saying it was a mans job and she didn't swim in the pool anyway. Rin was about to say how bullshit that was until she gave him a glare that clearly said; "I'll tell mum" making him shut up.

So Haruka and Rin were left with the job nobody wanted to do, and Haruka just stayed quiet as Rin talked about how annoying school was. The two of them almost had all the leaves out of the water and Haruka just wanted to put the chlorine in so he could finish and get home.

Rin stopped talking and looked up at the teen across the pool from him, seeing his deep concentration as he caught the leaves in the net.

"You know, you could always talk once in a while" the red head remarked, staring at Haruka.

"Nothing to talk about" he replied, still not looking up.

Rin smiled and sighed "Ever heard of making conversation? It's the polite thing to do"

"I don't need to be polite towards you"

"Jeez, such mean words. But I guess that's just you, you haven't changed at all"

"I have changed" Haruka stated "I'm taller and more muscular"

"I mean personality wise you idiot" Rin chuckled, seeing an annoyed look on his friends face for a split second and gone the next.

Finally getting the leaves out of the pool, Haruka walked over to the bags of chlorine and cut one of them open with scissors that were lying next to them. Rin stood behind him and watched as Haruka did this, he couldn't help but grin in amusement as the raven haired teen tried to pick the bag up.

"Do you need help with that? I am stronger than you, you know"

Haruka frowned, saying nothing and refusing to give in as he tried to pick it up once again. Failing again and hearing Rin's chuckling, he attempted it one more time and managed to pick the bag up. However, since the bag was so heavy, he began to lose his balance the second it was in his arms.

Rin stopped chuckling as he watched his friend stumbling backwards, thinking if he fell the bag would crush him and his head would probably crack open.

Haru gasped as he could feel himself about to land on his back, but was caught by a pair of strong arms before he did. The bag was dropped and chlorine powder spilled out of it.

Haruka was too distracted to notice though, as he was being held by Rin. Rin's arms were hooked around the teens stomach, and Haruka could feel the other's breath on his ear since they were so close.

Rin tsked and rested his chin on his friend's shoulder "I knew you needed my help, we both know you're not strong enough. Now you've just wasted it"

"Let me go" Haruka frowned, ignoring the tingly feeling in his stomach. He didn't know what it was, but he chose not to focus on it.

"No" Rin grinned, gripping the teen tighter.

This was normal. When they were kids the red head would cling to him, literally. Whenever Rin suggested Haruka should swim in the relay and Haruka said no, Rin would whine and wrap his arms around the other and continuously say "Haru, swim in the relay with me, Haru!" in an annoying voice until Haruka either squirmed out of it or Makoto broke them apart.

Makoto wasn't there though, so Haruka began to try and squirm out of it. It was much harder to get out of the teen's grip now though, since Rin was much more  
muscular and stronger then when he was a child. Rin just laughed and squeezed him tighter, making Haruka struggle even more.

"Let me go Rin!"

"Not until you admit you need my help with the bags"

"Why would I admit to a lie?"

"You just fell back because you couldn't hold it, and you still think you can pick them up by yourself?"

"I know I can! I just picked it up wrong is all! Not like you can pick them up anyway!"

Rin thought about this for a moment, keeping his iron grip around Haruka while he continued to struggle.

"...well you'd be heavier then the bags, right?" Haruka said nothing as he was now trying to push the teen's arms off from around him instead of breaking out of them. "If I can pick you up then I can pick up the bags, doesn't that seem logical?"

Haruka frowned "You're not strong enough to-ah!" he gasped as Rin suddenly lifted him up, his feet now hovering above the ground. Rin smirked triumphantly as he held the teen off the ground.

"Ha! I told you I was stronger!" the red head laughed.

"R-Rin!" Haruka exclaimed, his back was full on pressed against Rin's body and he felt himself getting flustered for no reason "Put me down, now!"

Rin ignored him and laughed louder, still holding him up. He didn't notice the teen's slightly flushed face and wide, confused eyes.

"Rin!" Haruka hissed viciously, making Rin go silent from the harsh tone. The red head looked up and saw Haruka's hard, blue eyes glaring at him, making him instantly put the teen down.

Once Haruka was on the ground, he quickly walked over to the spilt bag of chlorine and lifted it upright. He was flustered and confused, willing himself to calm down and is face to go back to its normal colour. He didn't understand why he was feeling like this but he chose to just ignore the thought, maybe he was getting the flu? It seemed to be going around and it was only logical. But would the flu make Haruka's body burn in the places Rin touched?

Meanwhile, Rin was still standing there, shocked. Sure, Haruka was a serious guy, but he had never had so much venom in his voice. Especially not towards Rin. It made him wonder if his friend had changed after all.

Haruka looked at the amount of chlorine spilled, luckily it wasn't even a quarter of the amount in the bag and he attempted to pick it up again. Finally deciding there was no way on earth he'd be able to pick it up without straining himself, he turned to Rin and hesitantly asked for his help.

Rin blinked as he was interrupted from his thoughts, staring at the teen who refused to look him in the eye out of embarrassment. Rin just smiled and they both poured the bags or chlorine in the pool, both deciding to forget about what happened earlier.

When finally finishing the two of them walked half of the way home together, said goodbye, and parted ways.

The second Haruka got home he ran into the bathroom and turned on the taps to fill the bath, it still burned where Rin had touched him and he decided sitting in cool water would fix it.

Of course, it didn't. So Haruka sat in the bath for almost the whole night wondering why he felt so hot in a tub of cold water.

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**I hope you enjoyed that! The next chapter will be posted tomorrow! But if I don't have time it will be posted the day after. Review if you want but I am not too fussed about that, I just want you to enjoy the story!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is the second chapter! I am sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes, as always. I do read over my chapters but sometimes I just miss them and when I read over it again once it's posted I feel like an idiot. Anyway, please enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: ****Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

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Rin sat at his desk bored, looking around the class to see others talking to each other. He sighed and looked behind him to see neither Makoto nor Haruka. They always seemed to arrive later than everyone else, Rin guessed it was probably because his water obsessed friend spent the whole morning in the bath, as Makoto had told him.

He wished he could walk to school with the two of them, but he lived closer to the school and it would just be an extra street to walk up. It would make Rin late for waiting and the others late because they had to get him. Not only that but he also had to walk to school with Gou as she always wanted to get to school early for whatever reason.

The doors slid open and Rin looked up to see the two he was hoping for, giving both a wide smile as they approached.

"Hey! You're a bit later than usual today, did Haru spend too long in the tub again?"

Haruka glared at his red haired friend while Makoto laughed lightly "Actually, Haru slept in. I walked into his house to get him and he was still sleeping."

Rin's eyebrows rose and he turned to Haruka to see bag's under his ocean blue eyes, he knew Haruka didn't like mornings but the teen never actually looked tired.

"Did you not get a good sleep then, Haru?" Rin asked, seeing Haruka nod

"Too much on my mind"

"Too much on your mind?" Rin questioned "What are you thinking about? Do we have a test coming up or something?" he turned to Makoto to see him shaking his head.

Haruka visibly stiffened as the question was asked and turned to the red head, his frown deepening "Rin, you're going to get in trouble."

Said teen's eyebrow rose and he looked down at his shirt, where Haruka was looking.

"Oh, you mean since I'm not wearing my tie? Please, Miss Ama-chan doesn't even care any more, she only reported me once for it. And if you haven't noticed about half the students in the school don't wear the tie anyway, look around you"

Haruka opened his mouth to speak until three girls suddenly pushed past him and ran right up to Rin, making him stumble slightly. Makoto grabbed his shoulders to help him steady and Haruka thanked the brunette.

When Haruka turned back to Rin, he noticed the three girls leaning in around him, giving him large smiles.

"Hey Rin! Are you going to eat lunch with us today?" the first girl chimed.

The red head leant back and yawned "Uh...no, I don't think so"

The three girls pouted "Why? We want to hear more about Australia!" the second girl whined in an annoying, high pitched voice.

"Yeah, come on Rin! Just sit with us for once! All our other friends will be there too!" the third girl frowned, all of them leaning closer to him.

Rin sighed and rested his head on his hand "I don't even know your friends"

"We will introduce you! They'd love you I'm sure! And we all want to know how you build so much muscle!"

Haruka watched the three girls harassing Rin with dark eyes, feeling some kind of rage bubbling in him...was it even rage? It felt kind of different from rage, but whatever it was it made him hate the three girls surrounding his best friend.

The teen felt his eye twitch as the conversation continued and, without thinking, he walked up to them.

"Hey" he said in a low voice, all four turning towards him.

"Oh, you're Nanase right? Rin's friend?" one of the girls asked. Haruka nodded and the three all began to glare at him "I'm sorry, friend or not but you're interrupting our conversation with Rin. How about you go sit at the back of classroom by yourself like you always do?"

Haruka's eye twitched again "But I was-"

"What? You think just because we're inviting Rin to sit with us, you're invited too? Why don't you just piss off? I don't even know why Rin is friends with a loser like you!"

Haruka's hand was clenched and shaking, his pure blue eyes glaring down the three girls.

"I had no intent on sitting with-" Haruka continued, but was cut off once again by one of the girls

"Ha! You're probably so desperate for a girlfriend! I bet that's why you hang around Rin, you're trying to get a girl, right? Well let me tell you this, that's never going to happen! Everyone knows about your weird water fetish you know, it's just not normal. I bet soon Rin will see just how much of a freak you are and ditch you! He'll probably even leave that stupid swimming club you're in since you're such a-"

"OI!" Rin violently yelled, quickly standing and making everyone in the class jump and turn towards the red head.

Haruka stared at his friend with wide eyes, seeing his crimson eyes burning with rage that he must have been holding back through the conversation.

Rin's mouth was turned into a sneer and the three girls stared at him, almost in terror. "R-Rin? What did we do? You know what we said is-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! Honestly, you three annoy the hell outta me! I've only let you talk to me to be nice, but now you've really pissed me off!"

The three girls looked hurt "We...we annoy you? Well w-we can change! We won't annoy y-"

"I SAID SHUT UP! You know nothing of my relationship with Haru! You have no idea what we've been through to have the friendship we have now, you know nothing about me! I'm not going to just sit here and let you hurt and insult my best friend like that, so piss off! I'm sick of you!"

The three girls were on the verge of tears, all huddled together like small, scared animals. They all ran out calling Rin an idiot and saying he would regret what he said.

The red head tsked and turned to the raven haired teen, who was staring at him with wide eyes.

"Don't let them get to you Haru, you know I'd never quit the swimming club. You also know I'm just as much of a freak as you are"

"You didn't have to yell at them..." Haruka mumbled, looking to the ground in embarrassment.

Rin smiled and sat back down "Why did you even try talking to them anyway? You've never done that before...are you trying to get a girl?"

Haruka looked at him in a slight glare "No, I'm not interested in a relationship"

"So why did you interrupt us then?"

The blue eyed teen started to shift uncomfortably, not too sure how to answer the question. He wasn't sure himself, he just walked up to them without thinking. He must have been catching the flu to do something like that, surely...

"Haru?" Makoto frowned, looking at his friend with concern. First he slept in because there was too much on his mind, and now he wasn't answering Rin's question? Makoto could see the confused look in Haruka's ocean blue eyes and was about to speak until the bell went.

Haruka quickly sat down in the desk behind Rin, ignoring their questioning looks. Makoto turned to Rin with a raised eyebrow and the red head shrugged, making the brunette frown and sit next to the raven haired teen.

Through the class Makoto kept glimpsing at Haruka, seeing the teen would look at Rin and then out the window, then look at Rin again. This continued for the whole lesson and Makoto could feel his frown deepen, getting a bad feeling as to what was happening to his best friend.

Once lunch time finally came around, the three of them walked up to the roof where Nagisa and Rei would be waiting for them. They walked up to see the blonde stealing food from Rei's bento box, as he always did.

"Ah, Haru-chan! Mako-chan! Rin-chan!" Nagisa smiled

"Cut out the chan" Rin and Haruka both said simultaneously, frowning at the blonde.

Nagisa giggled and turned to Makoto "Hey Mako-chan! What do you have in your lunch today?"

"Sorry Nagisa, I don't have anything to your tastes" Makoto smiled warmly as the blonde pouted. He had learned what Nagisa's favourite foods were and avoided making them, otherwise he'd find all his food gone in less than a minute.

Nagisa turned to Rin "Do you have anything, Rin-chan?"

"You're not having any of my food" the red head immediately responded, already eating.

Nagisa frowned and turned to Haruka "I know you don't have anything Haru-chan, you've only ever got mackerel"

Haruka frowned at the blonde "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, nothing" Nagisa said, waving him off "Rei-chan barely has anything to eat too"

"Are you kidding me?!" said teen turned to the blonde with wide eyes "You ate half of my lunch!"

"Now, now Rei-chan, you shouldn't complain so much. It's good to help friends out!"

Rei's shoulders slumped as he sighed "How much do you eat anyway? You've already eaten all your lunch plus most of my own. I'm surprised you're even that skinny, it doesn't seem scientifically possible"

"Rei-chan, you're so mean!" Nagisa pouted, making Rei frown.

"Rei, will you be okay with the lack of food?" Makoto smiled, slightly concerned about the blue haired teen as he knew just how much Nagisa could eat and remembering the blonde once ate all of Rei's lunch.

"I will be fine, Makoto Senpai. I've learned to pack a second lunch" as if to prove this, Rei pulled a second bento box out of his bag. Nagisa eyed it and Rei quickly shoved it back in his bag while saying "You're not having any!"

"Rei-chan!" Nagisa whined, now grabbing onto the teens arm "Rei-chaaaaan! You're so meeeean!"

"Pack a bigger lunch if you get hungry then! I'm not your personal chef!"

"But the lunches Rei-chan makes are so yummy!"

Makoto watched the two arguing and smiled. Makoto knew just how much Rei actually cared for Nagisa, since Rei knew all of Nagisa's favourite foods. Instead of avoiding to make them, like Makoto did, Rei always made half of his bento box out of them. Even though Makoto knew Rei didn't like those foods himself. The brunet noticed this a while ago but kept quite about it.

"I just remembered something," Haruka announced, making everyone turn to him "my math teacher told me to go get notes off him this lunch because I missed his last class"

"Why'd you miss it?" Rin asked

"Emergency at home"

"What kind of emergency?"

"I forgot to turn the bathroom tap off"

Everyone stared at the raven haired teen blankly "...you're kidding right?"

"No"

The four sighed, knowing how Haruka was and not questioning it any further. Haruka packed his lunch and stood up, telling the others to watch his bag.

"I'll come with you" Rin stated "I have to go to the toilet anyway. Makoto, Rei, make sure Nagisa doesn't touch my food" Nagisa pouted and the two teens walked off.

The two were quiet as they walked, neither of them talking. This was normal, well...for Haruka anyway. It was odd for Rin to be so quiet, Haruka had gotten used to the red head's pointless chit chat as kids, and it even felt weird without it. So he turned to the teen to see him looking right at him, making Haruka's eyes widen and quickly look away.

Rin chuckled and shoved his hands in his pockets "You know, you've been acting weird today. But that's probably because you didn't get to soak this morning, considering you slept in." Haruka's cheeks reddened and Rin smirked "That's the first time I've ever heard that you slept in, you must really have a lot of things on your mind if you couldn't sleep. Which is odd for you since the only thing that's on your mind is...well, water."

"And swimming" Haruka interjected

"Water, swimming, in your mind it's the same thing"

"It's not"

"Yeah, yeah I know" Rin sighed, turning towards the toilets "Wait for me would you?"

Haruka said nothing and leaned against the wall next to the bathroom door, watching as people went by. He really didn't want to get any notes for math, it just meant more homework and it was one of his worst subjects. He wasn't bad at it, but he wasn't good at it either.

Lately his grades had been dropping and his parents called him, asking if he was keeping up with everything and if anything was too hard to understand. They suggested a tutor, and Haruka wouldn't have minded it if it was Rei who was tutoring him since the blue haired teen was incredibly smart. But Rei was tutoring Nagisa and Haruka wasn't really comfortable with an almost complete stranger or random student teaching him.

A subject he knew he needed a tutor on was English. English was his overall worst subject and he couldn't understand it one bit, he'd been very close to failing almost every English test. So his parents told him they'd give him one more month and if his grades still weren't going up, they would call a tutor for him.

The bathroom door opened and Rin walked out, seeing his raven haired friend seemed to be daydreaming and completely off Earth.

"Oi, Haru, you still there?"

Said teen blinked, looked at Rin for a bit, then said nothing as he walked off. Rin shook his head at the typical behaviour and followed after the teen.

Finally arriving at the teachers office, Haruka knocked on the door to see Miss Ama-chan. They greeted one another and Haruka requested to see his maths teacher.

"Sir, Nanase and Matsuoka are here to see you" Miss Ama-chan called out, looking at the teacher sitting just a few meters away from the door.

"Ah, Haru is just seeing him actually" Rin interjected

"No, no Matsuoka, you come here too. It's a good thing you're here because I wanted to see both of you" the man said, looking up at the two teens walking over to him. He took a sheet of paper off his desk and held up to Haruka "Here's a sheet on what you missed. Hopefully it's not too complicated, I made the question's at a moderately easy level.

Haruka glared at the equations in front of him, it all just looked like one big mess of numbers and letters to him.

"Now, your parents rang the school Nanase, and they requested that you find a tutor"

"They rang the school?" Haruka questioned, seeing his teacher nod

"I agree that you do need a tutor, especially if you want those grades to go up"

Haruka frowned and Rin looked at him with slight amusement, although the red head had to wonder why he was there.

"Matsuoka," said teen turned to the teacher "you are one of the top students in my high level math class, and I also know you are friends with Nanase. I would like you to tutor him."

Both teens stared at him as if he were mad, shocked at what they had heard. Sure, Haruka needed a tutor, but it was just embarrassing to have Rin tutor him. The red head would see how stupid he was and, being as competitive as they were, he couldn't let that happen. He was also still confused about what happened the other day and didn't really want to get too close to Rin.

"I can't have him as my tutor" Haruka complained

his teacher sighed "And why not?"

"Because Rin is too busy"

The teacher turned toward said teen and raised a questioning eyebrow "Is this true?"

Rin shook his head "No, I actually have a lot of free time. I wouldn't mind tutoring Haru-uh, Nanase"

The raven haired teen gave Rin an annoyed look, only to have the red head give him a wide, white smile.

"'He's mocking me...'"

The teacher nodded "Alright then, it's settled, I will ring your parents and tell them about the arrangements. Matsuoka, if you could, I'd like you and Nanase to get started straight away. Is tonight any good?"

"Tonight is fine, and whenever I have free time after school I will tutor Nanase" Rin smiled, the teacher nodding in approval.

With that they were dismissed and the two teens walked down the hall in silence, Haruka annoyed at what had happened and Rin smiling widely as he knew Haruka was pissed.

"Seems I'll be coming over to your house tonight then" the red head said, breaking the silence

"Please don't" Haruka frowned, refusing to look at the teen.

Rin couldn't help but chuckle, for some reason he felt excited to be going to Haru's. Haruka, on the other hand, was feeling...nervous? He guessed that's what it was, but he didn't know why he'd be nervous. It's just Rin, there was no reason to be nervous...right?

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**Ah yes, Rin as a tutor. Now I know for a fact that Haruka is bad at English and it is his worst subject, but I'm not too sure about his maths...honestly I just assumed. But I know Rin's best subjects are Maths and English so I didn't make that up.**

**Anyway the next chapter should be posted tomorrow!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable! As always sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes and hopefully you can just look past them...anyway, please enjoy this chapter!**

******Disclaimer: ****Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

"I'm coming in" Rin said, taking off his shoes near the door. Haruka frowned at him and walked off, hoping if he ignored the red head then he would leave.

School was over and he knew Rin was tutoring him. He had no problems with tutors, but the fact it was Rin tutoring him pissed him off to no extent. Haruka knew Rin would tease him and call him an idiot, but was Rin really that smart anyway?

"Oi, where are you going? The table is right here" Rin questioned, watching his friend walk off

"Changing out of my uniform" Haruka answered, continuing to walk. He stopped though, as Rin had grabbed him by the collar and was holding him back.

"Liar, you're trying to get in the bath, aren't you?"

"No"

"I've known you for ages and do I look like an idiot?"

"Do you want me to answer that?"

The two glared at each other, both of them feeling a sort of fire between them. Rin knew he couldn't let his competitive spirit get the better of him, as he really had come over to tutor Haruka.

"Well whatever, just sit your ass down and get your maths out"

Haruka frowned, grabbing his bag and sitting down. Rin sat across from him and watched as the raven haired teen looked around in his bag for his maths book. He began taking out other books and putting them on the table so he could find the one he needed.

While he was searching, Haruka didn't notice Rin reach over and grab one of the books he carelessly dropped on the table. The red head recognised it as an English book and flicked through it. He got to a sheet of paper, which was a recent English test, and frowned when he looked at the mark.

"You failed this English test?" Haruka's eyes widened and he looked up to see Rin holding the test up "You have your sentences mixed up and you're missing words! 'This house great'? You have to flip these two words around and put in joining words! It's meant to be 'This is a great house'"

Haruka's face heated up, he knew he was bad at English so he didn't need Rin to rub it in "Shut up, what would you know about English anyway?"

Rin gave him a look of disbelief "Haru, I went to Australia, remember? I am fluent in English! So it looks like you need my help with this too!"

"I thought the agreement was you would tutor me with my maths, not English!"

Rin sighed as he saw Haruka's angry look and combed his red hair back, knowing if he didn't help the teen he would fail every English test to come.

"Your parents want you to have a tutor, correct?" Haru said nothing and Rin took this as a sign to continue "And the two things you need a tutor for is maths and English. Those happen to be two of my best subjects and you want a tutor that isn't a complete stranger, don't you think I'm fit for the job?"

Haruka stared at him for a while before turning away and saying "No"

"Well too bad, I'm taking it anyway" Rin smirked, knowing Haruka agreed to his logic but didn't want to admit it.

Haruka glanced at Rin to see him smiling, to see his shining white teeth, a smile that always brightened up the room. His smile, Rin's smile, a unique smile, a beautiful smile...a beautiful smile?

Haruka's eyes widened as he realised what he was thinking, making him shake his head and look down at the table in confusion. Why was he thinking these things? What was his problem? He had never thought about Rin like that as a child, so why think about him like that as a teenager? It didn't make any sense!

Rin raised an eyebrow as he noticed the teen across from him looking down at the table with a scrunched up face, an expression that meant he was thinking hard. Rin couldn't help but chuckle at this unusual look, it didn't look natural on Haruka's face at all.

The red head grinned and leaned over the table to only be inches away from Haruka's face "Are you thinking about maths? It's not a very attractive look you know"

Haruka's eyes widened and he quickly pulled away, making Rin jump at the sudden reaction. He noticed a red tint on Haru's cheeks and had to squint to see if it was actually there.

"Are you...blushing?"

The raven haired teen said nothing and stood up, walking to the kitchen while saying "I'm making mackerel, then you can start tutoring."

Rin watched him walk away, confused as to what had just happened.

"_Haru was blushing, right?_" Rin thought _"I didn't imagine that, did I? But...Haru never blushes! Well at least...not around me...I don't think I've ever seen him blush before. But, even so, it did look kinda..."_ Rin sunk down to the table and rested his head on his arms, feeling his face heat up as he thought of the blushing Haru

"...cute"

"You need to use this word, not this one! It makes no sense if you use that!" the redhead growled in frustration, pointing to words in a book.

Haruka frowned and slammed his pencil on the book "But aren't they both joining words? Aren't they the same?! Why do I have to use this word instead?!"

"Because like I told you, it doesn't make sense! You're messing up the whole sentence by doing that! Japanese has joining words too, doesn't it? And they are all different, aren't they? We don't have one word to join all our sentences together, no language does!"

"Well why is English so complicated?!"

"It's not! It's probably one of the easiest languages to learn! You're just making it complicated!"

Haruka frowned and looked down to his book "But they have words the wrong way around! It's not even the same structure as Japanese!"

"Yes, but after you get the structure down, it becomes really simple." Rin sighed, rubbing his temple and feeling a headache coming on from all the yelling. "God, you are so hard to teach, you know that? I feel sorry for your teachers"

"You're just a horrible tutor" Haruka pouted, looking away from the red head.

Rin sighed once more and he stood up, stretching as he did so "We haven't even gotten to your maths yet, this is going to take the whole night"

Haruka frowned down at the table, almost feeling guilty for reasons he didn't understand "Sorry I'm so stupid"

"You're not stupid, you're just stubborn." Rin stated "How about we have a break for a bit then get on with your maths?"

Haru nodded in silent agreement, but didn't move. Instead he just sat there and stared at the English book in front of him. Rin looked down at him with a raised eyebrow, seeing the teens blue eyes looked almost...sad.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, Haruka now turning away and ignoring him "Haru?"

The raven haired teen still said nothing, and Rin recognised the look his friend was making.

"Haruka, why are you sulking?"

Said teen was surprised to hear his full name, he knew Rin only used that when he was serious. So he glanced up at the redhead, then back down to his book and answered the question.

"...I don't like it when you get mad at me..."

Rin's crimson eyes widened, not expecting to hear that. He chuckled and gave Haru a big smile when he knew the teen was looking at him "I'm sorry, I wasn't mad I was just frustrated. But don't worry, I'm sure you'll get your English down in no time"

Haru didn't respond and just looked away again, making Rin shake his head and begin to look around the room. It really hadn't changed from when he visited as a child, apart from the small shrine of Haruka's grandma in the corner, but something that was different was a sketch book sitting on a shelf in the corner.

Rin walked over to it and picked it up, recognising it as an art book.

_"Ah, that's right, one of Haru's top subjects is art"_ he thought, beginning to open the book.

Haru, noticing the teen move, looked up to see Rin holding his sketch book. He would have been okay with it but, the problem was, it wasn't the sketchbook he used for school and was more of a...personal one.

"N-no!" Haru yelled out, quickly jumping up to try and stop his friend from looking through it.

Rin's reflexes immediately reacted as Haru tried to grab the book from him, making Rin hold it in the air where the teen couldn't get it.

"What's wrong with you? Surely I can look at the pictures you draw?!"

"N-no!" Haru said again "Not that one!"

Haruka jumped up in an attempt to grab the book, making Rin stumble back and bump the shelf behind him. Something fell to the ground and he dropped the book in surprise, then looked back to see what had fallen.

Haru quickly recovered the book and was getting ready for Rin to try and grab it by tensing up, but it never happened as the redhead was too occupied with what had fallen from the shelf.

"Rin?" Haruka questioned, now walking up to him to see what was wrong.

The redhead bent down and tenderly picked up the fallen item "H-Haru...is this...?"

Rin turned around with the item still being held, and Haruka's blue eyes widened when seeing the small, worn flower crown covered with cherry blossoms, sitting in the teens hands...

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**Aaaah I'm sorry for ending it on a cliffhanger! But the next chapter will be out tomorrow so you'll just have to wait till then! And also, one of my friends who is Italian and main language isn't English, said that English was actually a pretty easy language to learn! So I don't really know if that's a fact or not but meh.**

**I would also like to thank the people who have read and reviewed so far, and I am glad you are enjoying the story!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I am incredibly sorry I didn't upload yesterday, but it ended up being a busier day then I had thought so I didn't have the time to. But I was previously looking back at my other chapters and I realised that it seems a bit confusing because I change the time or scene or whatever you call it all of a sudden, and I usually show I am doing this by using three dots. But for some reason when I upload the file it doesn't show the dots, so sorry if that confused you.**

**Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter! (It is also kind of mushy and cheesy so just be ready for that)**

**Disclaimer: ************Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

_The sun beamed it last rays of light across the sky. Birds were beginning to rest while the insects sang as the sunset coloured the sky in bright red and orange. The cold wind ran through the cherry blossom trees that were beginning to bloom, but still not showing their full beauty._

_Two small boys, both around the age of ten, walked next to each other on a small pathway. One of them smiling and laughing while the other was looking away and seemed to be disinterested._

_"Haru!" the small redheaded boy whined "Stop ignoring me! It is our last day together before I go to Australia!"_

_The raven haired boy flinched slightly when hearing those words and looked away once more, a glisten of hurt in his eyes. He had just won the relay with Rin, Makoto and Nagisa, life seemed great at that moment, except for one thing._

_Rin was going to Australia, and Haru knew he couldn't do anything about it. It was a Monday, but a public holiday, and Rin was leaving late in the night. So the redhead had offered Haru to spend the day with him, which Haru unwillingly accepted to since he was practically dragged out of his house by Rin._

_Rin had wanted Makoto and Nagisa to come too, but they were both doing something with their large families. So it was just the two of them, now walking down the street and heading home._

_Haruka wanted to ask "Why are you going to Australia? What's wrong with Japan? Do you not like it here?" but it wasn't in his nature to be so nosy so he didn't ask anything, he didn't even speak. The whole day he spent with Rin just made Haru think of how much he was going to actually miss the boy, but he forced those thoughts out of his head and refused to think about it._

_Haruka turned to the redhead next to him to see him tying small, flexible, vine like sticks together to make a circle. He couldn't seem to tie it though and began to get frustrated._

_As they walked up a pair of stairs Rin said "Haru, can we sit down for a minute? I want to get this"_

_Haru said nothing and sat down, as did Rin, and the blue eyed boy watched in slight amusement as his friend couldn't seem to tie the small vine together. So, without saying a word, he grabbed it off him and tied it together easily._

_"Hey no fair" Rin whined "I almost had it!"_

_"Pass me another one" Haru said, ignoring the previous complaint and holding out his hand. Rin frowned and took one of many he seemed to be holding in his hand to give to Haru. Haruka didn't even see him collecting them, but he ignored it._

_Rin watched in fascination as his friend carefully wound the small vine around the one already tied together, then held out his hand for another one once he was done._

_This pattern continued and Rin couldn't help but admire the boy's craftsmanship. He knew Haru was good at art, but he didn't know he was _that_ good._

_Finally finished, Haru inspected it to make sure it was all tied together properly, then handed it back to Rin. The redhead tsked and took it without saying a word, obviously annoyed he couldn't make it himself._

_Rin suddenly stood up and looked at the cherry blossom tree's either side of them, looking at the flowers that had landed around the base of the tree's._

_"Wow, lucky these two bloomed early, or I don't know what flower's I would have put in it"_

_Haru watched in fascination as Rin began picking up flowers and putting them into the base of the crown, so when curiosity got the better of him after Rin had been doing this for five minute's, he asked "Why are you making a flower crown?"_

_The redhead turned around, a large smile on his face and a finished flower crown in his hands. He walked up to Haru, who was still sitting down, and put in on the boy's head._

_"For you, stupid, to remember me by. I couldn't buy anything so I thought I would make something, a flower crown was just the first thing that came to mind!"_

_Haruka's blue eyes sparkled for a split second, before it was gone and he stood up, taking the crown off his head "I don't want it"_

_Rin's smile widened and he jumped down the stairs, then turned back to Haru "I need to go home now, hopefully I will see you again"_

_Haruka's eyes widened once more, the spark now back in them as he looked down at Rin from the top of the stairs._

_With a final breath, Rin opened his mouth and said "Goodbye, Haru chan" and walked away._

_Haruka let out a strangled gasp as he watched his friend walk away, a sound that meant he was trying to say "Don't go, don't say goodbye, come back" but he knew he would never say those words. Instead, he watched as that long red hair disappeared around the corner and he felt his heart sting, a feeling he wasn't familiar with._

_Haruka held up the flower crown Rin had given him, staring at it intently with quivering eyes before gripping it tightly and walking up the stairs, flower crown still in hand._

_"Something to remember you by..." Haruka mumbled, stopping and feeling his eyes begin to water "Rin, idiot... I don't need this to remember you..."_  
_even so, he still tightly held the flower crown and continued up the stairs._

...

"Why did you keep it?" Rin asked, still holding the delicate item in his hands. Haruka didn't answer, instead just clutched his sketch book and looked at the wall. Rin looked at his friend's quivering blue eyes, seeing the teen was clearly embarrassed.

"Okay, you don't have to tell me why you kept it, but...how are the flowers still so colourful and fresh? There is no possible way they could still-"

"I kept it because you said it was a gift!" Haruka burst out, his face quickly heating up "I-I couldn't just throw it out when you made it for me! It was the only thing you ever gave me! A-and the flowers are still fresh because I replaced them! Every time the cherry blossoms bloom I g-go to the same two tree's where the original flowers you put in were from and r-replace them! The b-base of the crown is still the same from that day though!"

Rin looked at his friend with wide eyes, seeing Haru's cheeks were bright red. He knew the teen was easily embarrassed and couldn't help but smile when seeing the rare expression.

The redhead walked over to Haru and put the crown on his head, making the smaller teen jump slightly and look up to see Rin's wide, joyful smile.

"You didn't have to keep it, idiot. And it wasn't the only thing I gave you, I showed you that sight, remember? Don't tell me you've forgotten about it"

Haru stared at Rin for a moment before looking away with a small pout "I didn't forget it, I never could...and don't call me an idiot"

Rin's crimson eyes softened when looking at the red faced Haruka, thinking of how the cherry blossoms really made his eyes stand out and sparkle. At that moment he wanted to hug the teen, but forced himself not to. Instead he sat down and laughed, almost not believing what he had heard.

Haruka looked at him, confused "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing..." Rin reassured, combing his hair back "but...if I had known you cared about me like that when coming back from Australia, I would've come running straight to you..."

Haruka's eyes sparkled "What do you mean...?"

"So oblivious" Rin smiled, shaking his head "The reason I was such an asshole when coming back from Australia was because I thought you didn't care for me at all. I saw the friends you had made and got jealous, which is lame, I know. So I thought if I finally beat you, you'd see me as more than just a pest"

"W-when did I ever see you as a pest?!" Haruka questioned, astounded as to what he was hearing

"You never did, but when I was in Australia I wrecked myself. I saw people around me with friends, laughing with each other and swimming together. I started losing my passion to swim, and for some reason I just started thinking 'I bet Haruka is happy, swimming with Makoto and Nagisa, he probably doesn't even remember me'. That's why I challenged you to a race at the train tracks and cried when I lost, because I thought if I couldn't beat you, you'd never care about me..."

The room went silent as Haruka stared in disbelief at the still smiling teen, except the smile had died down a bit and looked almost regretful. Haru couldn't believe Rin would think such things, he had no idea just what had happened to him in Australia. But, at that moment, it all seemed to make sense as to why Rin had done the things he did.

Haruka squeezed his sketch book and quietly sat down next to the redhead teen. Then, without a word, handed the object to him. He ignored the confused look Rin gave him and felt the book get lifted from his hands, then heard the surprised gasp as Rin opened it.

Inside the book were multiple perfect drawings of Haruka, Rin, Makoto and Nagisa smiling together as children. Sometimes it was just Rin smiling by himself and looking joyful.

"When you came back...I was sad I didn't see you smiling" Haruka mumbled, staring at the ground "It was something about you that I admired. Whatever happened, whatever situation we were in, you always smiled. It's something I can't forget, something I could never do. I didn't want your smile to fade away so I started drawing it, and I missed you..."

Rin's eyes sparkled and he continued to flick through the pages, every drawing was one of him smiling by himself or with others. And when he finally got to the last page, it was his present self that was smiling. He was smiling with Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa and even Rei, and he recognised it as the day they won the relay at regionals.

"Shit..." Rin cursed, feeling his eyes water "Ah crap, I'm such a girl. You really know how to make me cry, Haru"

"Don't cry..." Haruka quickly said, looking away "I really hate...seeing you cry"

The redhead's crimson orbs widened before he smiled and wiped away his watering eyes "These are tears of joy, you dumb ass. Why do you have to say such cheesy things?"

Haruka said nothing and Rin could no longer hold back the urge to hug the smaller teen, carefully putting down the sketch book and leaning over to wrap his arms around Haruka.

Haru's eyes widened as he felt his heart thumping, his cheeks reddening and his skin burning where Rin touched, just like it had at the pool on that day. And just like that day, he couldn't explain the feeling.

"R-Rin" Haruka stuttered, feeling an unknown emotion taking over him. He began to raise his hands, feeling a desire to grip onto the teen in front of him.

There was a sudden sound from the hallway and the two teens both shot their heads up to hear someone opening the door.

"Haru? Are you here?" a warm voice called, now walking down the hall.

A tall brunette walked into the lounge room, seeing the two teens sitting on the floor together, closer then they should be.

"Makoto?" Haru questioned, seeing said teen's green eyes slightly widen.

The look was quickly gone though as he gave his usual warm, calm smile "Ah, so that's why you didn't respond to my texts, because you were with Rin? Well you left your shirt at my house a few days ago so I thought I'd return it, I also bought over some leftover mackerel my family couldn't eat."

He placed two plastic bags down on the table, one containing the shirt and the other containing mackerel. The brunette continued to smile at the two, all three of them not saying a word.

"I should go" Makoto stated, breaking the silence "See you tomorrow Haru, you too _Rin_"

Rin could almost swear he saw Makoto's green eyes darken before the teen smiled again and left, making the redhead raise an eyebrow.

"...he usually does that...coming over unannounced I mean..." Haru mumbled, hearing the door close

"Did you notice...he seemed a little off?" Rin asked, still wondering if he had seen that cold look or not.

"Seemed normal, strange he just left though" Haru shrugged

Rin gave him a questioning look "You mean you didn't see that cold look? Or hear his voice drop for a second?"

The teen shook his head "You must be tired from tutoring, let's do math tomorrow night"

Rin frowned and noticed the flower crown was still on Haru's head "Makoto was probably wondering why this was on your head" he chuckled, snatching it off the teen "and don't think you're getting off your math that easily, it's still pretty early you know"

Haruka pouted and snatched the flower crown back, then carefully placed it back on the shelf. After that the two teens got back to the tutoring, but Rin couldn't shake off the suspicious feeling about a certain brunette...

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**Alrighty, after this chapter Makoto gets more involved so just be prepared for that! Also, we all know dear RinRin is a crybaby who is easily overwhelmed and I imagine Haru being really easily embarrassed. If I remember correctly Nagisa actually said that about Haru in a Drama CD. **

**Hopefully I can upload the next chapter tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay this is a mildly short chapter, but we will finally get to see Makoto's true colours! I am sorry I didn't upload this yesterday but, once again, I didn't have time because I needed to be social (ugh). I don't really want to say anything else because I don't want to spoil anything, but also because I've run out of things to say.**

**I hope you enjoy!**

******Disclaimer: ****Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

A redhead teen walked down the school halls with tired eyes, feeling as if he could pass out on the spot.

Tutoring Haruka seemed to be a bigger challenge than he thought, it was exhausting too. The raven haired teen would be stubborn and unwilling to listen, sometimes losing his concentration completely. So the two ended up working over time and stayed up till one in the morning, and Rin ended up having to walk back home since Haru rejected his offer to sleep over.

Rin knew the teen was just irritated and slightly mad at how he was made to study the whole night, and Rin noticed how moody Haru would be without soaking in water at least twice a day.

When getting to class Rin looked around to see Makoto reading some book and Haru fast asleep on his desk. For once the redhead was late and tired, but he already knew why that was.

"Morning Makoto" Rin greeted, sitting at his desk and yawning.

When no reply was given, he turned back to see Makoto giving him a cold look. But once again it was gone as the brunette smiled warmly "Morning Rin, tired from last night?"

Even though Makoto was smiling, Rin could feel a heavy atmosphere around the two of them, making him feel uneasy.

"Uh, yeah...you could say that"

Makoto continued to smile, saying nothing back. The redhead felt himself getting the creeps, knowing there was something off about the brunette.

When class started Rin almost sighed in relief and Haru was woken up by Makoto. Rin realised Makoto didn't have the same cold tone towards Haru as he did when talking to Rin, but the teen decided to ignore it and focus on staying awake.

Rin thought it was a miracle he managed to stay conscious the whole day, but he knew there was one more thing that needed to be done. Since it was Saterday, the school had to be cleaned, and the teacher began calling out the groups and who would be cleaning what.

"Matsuoka and Tachibana, could you please go and get the cleaning equipment from the janitor's closet? Here is the key" the teacher held up a pair of keys and Rin sighed.

_"Great"_ he thought _"The halls would be completely empty right now, and any other day walking with Makoto would be fine, but today he's been acting really weird. It's almost as if he's been cold towards me"_

Makoto smiled and stood up "Of course, Sensei, we would be happy to. You coming Rin?" and there it was, that creepy smile. Even so, Rin still stood up and walked out the door with him, trying to ignore the weird feeling in his gut.

It was silent walking together, which was odd, since the two of them were very chatty towards each other. Rin turned to the teen beside him to see Makoto's mouth was in a stern frown.

"Rin" said teen almost jumped when hearing his name.

"Uh, y-yeah?" he stuttered, feeling uneasy as the heavy atmosphere from this morning was back.

The brunette stopped, making Rin stop as well. Makoto was quiet for a moment before asking "What did you do to Haru?"

Crimson eyes widened at the question "...huh?"

Without warning, Makoto grabbed Rin's arm and roughly shoved him against the wall, making the back of his head slam into it and he groan under his breathe. He quickly looked up to see cold, green eyes staring straight into him, almost making him shake with fear.

"What the_ fuck_ did you do to Haruka?" Makoto growled, making Rin's eyes widen

"I-I didn't do anything!" Rin stuttered.

He had never heard Makoto use that kind of language before, maybe Haru had? No, surely not. Surely this is the first time Makoto had sworn at anything in his life, he was just too kind hearted!...at least, Rin thought he was.

"You fucking liar!" Makoto yelled, tightening his grip on the redhead's arms "Did you touch him?! Did you force him to have your way?! Did you toy with him?!"

"Holy shit Makoto, calm down!" Rin began to panic, feeling the grip on his arms sting in pain. What was even happening? What happened to the Makoto he knew? Was he possessed or something?

"No! I'm not calming down! I've had it with you! It was fine when it was just me and Haruka, everything was perfect! Then you come in and ruin it, you ruined Haruka! He changed because of you! He'd keep secrets from me, he'd be depressed for no reason, he'd refuse to talk to me or anyone! Why did you make such a big impact on his life? Why didn't he just give up on you? Why did you have to come back?!"

Rin started to tremble, the brunette was getting louder, a look in his eyes as if he was about to kill something, or _someone_.

"I-I didn't mean to make such a big impact! I didn't even know I did! What's wrong with you anyway? Are you sick or something?!"

Makoto snorted and banged Rin's head against the wall "I hate you...I FUCKING HATE YOU! You didn't even know you made such a big impact, you didn't even know you were hurting Haruka! Now he says things like _I can't swim without Rin, I want to swim with Rin, Rin's why I swim, _it's always just Rin, Rin, RIN!" he slammed the smaller teen against the wall again "I've been in Haruka's life longer than you! I've always looked out for him! I've always cared about him! I was the only one allowed to touch him! Then you come out of nowhere and he let you touch him, he let you talk to him, he let you into his life! Why...why? _WHY?!_"

"I-I don't know!" Rin stuttered, feeling his head start to ache and get dizzy from the violent shaking

"I've pretended to like you all these years, I've pretended to be your friend for Haru's sake, but I'm done pretending! I hate seeing you touch him! I hate seeing you with him! I hate _YOU_! I'VE HATED YOU ALL THESE DAMN YEARS! I WAS OVERJOYED HEARING YOU WERE GOING TO AUSTRALIA, AND YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED THERE! YOU PISS ME OFF SO MUCH, I CAN'T STAND YOU, YOU'RE A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT THAT RUINED HARUKA!"

Rin was paralysed, he couldn't believe what was happening. Makoto was an important friend to him, and to hear he was faking their friendship? Honestly, it was completely heartbreaking. Was this Makoto's true side? His true self that is just full of anger and hatred? That kind hearted Makoto that everyone knew, was that just a mask? Was that just something he hid behind so no one could see his true personality?

The brunette began to pant, feeling breathless after yelling so much. So he tightened his grip on the teen's arms and leaned in close, so close that it made Rin push himself flat against the wall.

With a final breathe, Makoto opened his mouth and whispered "Don't touch Haruka, _my_ Haruka, or I will _show you a sight you've never seen before_"

Rin suddenly realised what was happening, what Makoto meant. Not only that but it was sick. He took his own words that he said to Haru as a child and twisted them, twisted them to something that sounded cold and menacing. Makoto made those words sound like a _threat_. Rin wanted to say _it's not like that, you've got it wrong_ but he didn't have the strength to. Instead, Makoto let him go and he fell to the floor, Rin watching as the brunette walked off.

He was shocked, hurt, confused, but most of all, he was scared. Scared because that was the true side of Makoto, scared because he knew Makoto wouldn't go back on that threat. So Rin let the brunette go get the cleaning equipment while he sat there and thought about how he could avoid this newly seen side of Makoto.

The answer pained him, but he knew it was the only solution. Even though it was the only solution, Rin knew it wouldn't be an easy thing to do.

"...I need to stay away from Haruka..."

...

"Rin, are you tutoring me tonight?" Haruka asked, looking up at the redhead standing next to the pool.

Rin's eyes widened and he turned to see Makoto glaring at him, the brunette had very clearly held his hatred in for a long time and was now letting it show. Which was probably the most terrifying thing Rin had ever seen.

"I-I can't tonight, too busy" he lied, feeling a tad guilty for doing so

"What are you doing?" the smaller teen asked

"I-I'm...uh...Gou and I have something planned, it's a brother, sister thing" he forced a smile and dived in the pool before Haruka could ask any more questions.

"Don't let it get to you, Haru" a voice from behind him said, making the raven haired teen look up to see Makoto smiling at him. "How many times have we had to cancel our plans because of my siblings?"

Haruka said nothing, just watched Rin swim "...but he sounded different...like he was lying..." Makoto's eyes glistened with anger as he stared at the concerned Haru.

"Why..." he murmured under his breathe

"Hm?" Haruka questioned, turning to the brunette

"Why would he lie to you?" Makoto smiled "You know he wouldn't do that"

"...I guess"

On the other side of the pool, Rin was lifting himself out of the water and onto the tiled ground, still confused about the situation he was in.

_"This is blackmail"_ he thought _"I knew Makoto cared about Haru, but I saw it as more in a motherly way, but I guess I did have my suspicions..."_ Rin's eyes narrowed as he felt his head begin to throb _"But what's troubling me the most is...why do I despise the thought of Makoto wanting to get so close to Haru? I don't mind as friends but...is Haru even gay?"_

Crimson orbs widened at the thought and Rin shook his head "W-why am I thinking about something like this?" he muttered to himself.

"Are you okay, Rin chan?"

Rin almost screamed when hearing the sudden voice, but relaxed when seeing a small, blonde boy in front of him.

"Oh, Nagisa, you scared me"

Nagisa raised a suspicious eyebrow at the statement "Scared you? I was standing here the whole time! You seem really off today RinRin, did something happen?"

The redhead felt his cheeks heat up "P-please don't call me that"

Nagisa blinked "What? RinRin?"

"Yes, that!"

"Why not? I always called you that as kids!"

"We're not kids anymore!"

"That's enough, Nagisa kun" a blue haired teen interjected, walking between the two. He turned to the blonde and said "I thought you were working on your stamina"

"I am!" Nagisa complained

"Doesn't look like it, why don't you keep swimming?"

The blonde stuck his tongue out at the blue haired teen and walked off saying "You're no fun, Rei chan"

Rin sighed when seeing Nagisa walk off "Thanks a bunch, Nagisa can really irritate me sometimes"

"I do agree with what he said though" Rei stated, turning to the red head with concern "If you don't mind me asking, did something happen with Haruka senpai?"

Rin looked at Rei for a moment, then turned to see Makoto and Haruka talking. His eyes settled on Makoto and he swore he saw the teen flash him a cold look. He felt a shiver go up his spine and turned back to Rei

"Well...nothing happened with Haru, no..."

"Then who? Who's been troubling you so much?"

Rin sighed and said "I can't say" before walking off.

He knew Rei wouldn't believe him, he almost couldn't believe it himself. But the pain in the back of his head was proof enough of what had happened, and he had a feeling if he told anyone of Makoto's true side, Makoto wouldn't hesitate to threaten him once more...

* * *

**...yeah okay I made Makoto pretty violent, but think about this. **

**If you've been with someone almost your whole life, if you know everything about them and have always been there for them, how would you feel if someone you don't know came out of the blue and made a huge impact on that persons life. How would you feel to see that person start changing because of this one person that came out of nowhere? How mad would you be to see this random person getting as close as you did to that one person, maybe even closer, even though _you're_ the one that's known them your entire life? Even though _you're _the one that was always with them and always looked out for them?**

**I don't know about you but I would be pretty damn mad.**

**Anyway, that's just how I see Makoto, and hopefully it hasn't made you mad or anything? Since I like Makoto myself and I can see why you would be angry or something.**

**Hopefully I will be able to get the next chapter out tomorrow! Not too sure though, but I will try!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Um okay before I say anything about this chapter...SEASON 2 OF FREE HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN ANNOUNCED AND IF YOU AREN'T EXCITED YOU'RE LYING!...uh anyway...**

**Okay anyway, this chapter doesn't have much RinHaru in it again, but you just have to be patient. It is also kinda short, again, but...well whatever. I hope you enjoy the chapter anyways!**

**********Disclaimer: ****Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

"N-Nanase...Haruka?" said teen turned around to see a small, dark haired girl. He recognised her as a girl in his class and raised an eyebrow. It was a Wednesday, and it was still morning, school hadn't even started, what did she want? Haruka never was one for social interaction.

He noticed the girl looked shy, nervous even, and could clearly see her cheeks heating up. He frowned as she stood there and said nothing, waiting for her to do something.

"U-um...I have something for you..."

...

Rin walked down the halls with, once again, tired eyes. He hadn't gotten a decent sleep for three nights in a row, and he doubted getting any more sleep through the week.

The situation with Makoto and Haru wouldn't leave his mind. He had truly been good friends with Makoto as children, so to have the brunette say it was all a lie had really hurt him.

_"God, I should have never become Haru's tutor, I'm just in this ridiculous situation that I can't get out of now..."_

His thoughts trailed off as he turned a corner to be at the top of a pair stairs, and saw Haruka and a girl standing at the bottom of them, a girl he recognised from his class. He quickly hid back behind the corner and strained his ears to hear what they were saying, but frowned as he couldn't hear a thing.

The girl took something out from her bag and held it out to Haruka, Rin recognised it as a small envelope. It was a light shade of pink, which meant it must have been a love letter.

Rin's eyes widened as he stared at it, and noticed Haruka hesitated before taking it from the girl. The girl quickly bowed and scuttled away, leaving Haru behind with the envelope still in hand. The redhead frowned as he continued to look at the envelope in his friend's hand.

_"Makoto is not going to be happy about this..."_ he thought, but felt his own chest tightening for reasons he didn't know. He decided it must have been because Haruka got a love declaration before him and sighed before stepping out from the corner and walking down the stairs.

"What was that about?" he asked, smiling at Haru's shocked expression

"R-Rin?! Did you hear that?"

The taller teen shook his head "No, but I think I could see what was going on"

Haruka's eyes widened once more "Y-you could?"

"Yep" Rin nodded "that girl just confessed her love to you, didn't she?"

Haruka looked at Rin, then back down at the envelope, then back up at Rin, and quickly hid the envelope behind his back.

"Y-yeah, she did..."

Rin pouted "Why do you always get the good things? She's cute too, if you say no I'll happily go out with her"

"You would?" Haruka asked, seeming to be genuinely interested

"Yeah...why?"

"No reason, I have to go, I told Makoto I'd meet up with him"

Rin's eyes widened "Wait!" he quickly said, grabbing the teen.

Haruka stumbled and raised a questioning eyebrow "What?"

Rin opened his mouth, but what was he going to say? He wanted to say _don't go_, but why did he want to say that?

With slight hesitance, he removed his hand from Haru's shoulder and said "Nothing" before smiling and walking off.

Haru watched Rin walk off with a frown, feeling his shoulder burn from where the teen touched. He ignored the feeling and looked at the envelope that had been given to him, then turned it over to see _Matsuoka Rin_ written on the front.

Haruka glared at the envelope as he remembered what Rin had said

_"I would go out with her"_

The raven haired teen clenched his hands as he felt something bubble up in his stomach. The girl that gave him this letter had done nothing to him, she hadn't abused or teased him, she hadn't even talked to him before. But, for some reason, Haru hated her, and he roughly shoved the envelope in his bag.

_"I told her I would but...I can't give this to Rin..."_

_..._

"What's wrong, Haru?" Makoto asked, staring at the teen with concern.

Class had ended and everyone had gone, so the two teens were the only ones left in the room.

"Nothing's wrong" Haruka answered, packing his books away.

Makoto frowned slightly "Haru, please tell me, I just want to help"

The smaller teen looked up at the brunette, then back down at the table as he hesitated to answer. How did Makoto always see through him?

"...something weird is going on with Rin..."

Makoto's eye twitched as he heard the name "Really? What do you mean by weird?"

Haruka hesitated once more "Well...not with Rin exactly, but...it's more me and...Rin is a part of it and I don't know what's going on..."

Makoto balled his hand into a fist, he wanted to punch something. Why was Haru even concerned about Rin? Why did he care so much about him?

Haruka flinched slightly as Makoto suddenly wrapped his arms around him from the back, so the brunette's mouth was right next to Haru's ear.

"You don't need to worry about him, I'm sure he's fine" Makoto whispered, blowing into Haru's ear.

Haru squirmed slightly "Makoto, that tickles"

Said man ignored the complaint, and he slowly moved his hand up to reach the teen's neck, then started to move his fingers over Haru's neck and down to his collar bone.

_"Skin...so soft..."_ Makoto thought, moving his hand lower and under Haru's shirt.

"Makoto, you're being weird" Haru stated, sounding bored.

The brunette blinked, realising what he was doing and jumping away. He had almost lost himself, which had been happening more frequently. He knew one day he would go too far, but he also knew Haru didn't even notice or care when Makoto caressed him.

Haruka and Makoto had been friends for almost all their lives, so Haru never saw the touches Makoto did as more than a friendly gesture. But Makoto saw it as much more than that, and it annoyed him to know that Haru would never see him as more than a friend.

Whenever he touched Haru, he never got the same reaction as when Rin touched Haru. Makoto noticed that whenever Rin did a simple gesture, like put his arm around the raven haired teen, Haru's cheeks would heat up slightly and he would tell Rin to get off him.

Makoto never got that reaction, it was always _you're being weird._ But he wanted that reaction, he wanted Haru to blush and tell him to stop touching him. Then he knew Haru would be feeling more than just friendship between them.

Rin was getting too close, he was getting too close to Haru and Makoto knew he needed to separate them. If he didn't then Haru would realise his feelings for Rin, which Makoto saw long ago, and now that Rin is back, Makoto decided he's finally going to claim Haru. But he needs to split them first, even if it's just a little, then he can claim Haru and have the boy all to himself...

"You coming, Makoto?" Haru asked, already in the doorway

"Ah, yeah" Makoto smiled, lightly jogging up to Haru and walking with him to the roof.

Once they got to the roof, the two saw Nagisa, Rei and Rin sitting together and laughing. Makoto's eyes narrowed at Rin and he sat down with Haru, making sure to put on his happy act.

Haruka was sitting next to Rin and kept glancing at him, whenever he sat down the redhead would always smile at him and greet him. This time he wasn't doing that, and it annoyed Haru, was Rin ignoring him?

"Rin" said teen turned to Haru "are you tutoring me tonight?"

The redhead stiffened at the question and looked up to see a dark glare coming from Makoto, making him shiver.

"Uh, not tonight, my mum wants to have a family dinner"

"What about after dinner?"

"Uh..." he could still feel Makoto's glare on him "...sorry but my mum really wants me to stay home tonight"

Haruka frowned and instead of saying something he grabbed his bag, stood up, and walked off. Everyone watched him walk off with confusion.

"Haru, where are you going?" Makoto asked

"To the pool" the teen responded, continuing to walk towards the door.

"W-wait, Haru!" Makoto panicked, standing up and chasing after him "We still have a lesson after this, you can't!"

Once Makoto and Haru were out of sight, Nagisa leaned up to Rin and whispered "Why are you lying to Haru chan?"

Rin scowled "I'm not lying, I really do have a family dinner on tonight"

"Well then how come Gou told us about the sleepover she's having at her friend's tonight?"

Rin's eyes widened and he turned to the blonde teen "Does Haru know that too?" Nagisa nodded and Rin sighed "Shit"

Rei looked at Rin with concern "Rin senpai, I don't think you should be lying to Haru chan san like that"

"Why are you adding chan _and_ san?" Rin asked

Rei ignored the question and continued with what he was saying "I think Haruka senpai can clearly see whenever you're lying, and I'm sure it's hurting him"

Nagisa nodded in agreement "Haru chan will think you're avoiding him, and you'll really hurt his feelings doing that. Haru is actually really sensitive and can be hurt easily"

"What is he, a kitten?" Rin questioned sarcastically

"Rin chan!" Nagisa pouted "I'm serious! You should think about what you're saying to him, otherwise you'll really damage him emotionally!"

Rin looked at Nagisa with wide eyes, he had never seen the blonde look so serious before. He knew he was avoiding Haruka, but what could he do? He had seen Makoto's scary side and he never wanted to see it again, it was terrifying.

"Rin" Rei said in a concerned tone "is there something that's making you lie to Haruka senpai?"

Rin raised a questioning eyebrow "Like what?"

"Is there someone..." Rei went quiet "...threatening you?"

Rin stiffened, Rei had hit the nail right on the head. Did that mean Rei could see what Makoto was doing, or was it just a guess? Or maybe Rei was just really good at reading people's expressions?

"Don't be silly Rei chan" Nagisa frowned "Who would threaten Rin chan about being near Haru chan?"

The blue haired teen sighed and readjusted his glasses "Yes, I guess you're right. It was a stupid question"

Rin wanted to say that Rei was right, that he was being threatened. But instead he just smiled and said "Yeah, it was a damn stupid question" and continued eating his lunch.

_"What the hell am I going to do?"_

* * *

**Heheheh evil horny Makoto gotta love it. Also I really like Rei and Rin's relationship and I kinda ship it, but just the tiniest bit. I think they make great friends though.**

**I don't know if I will be able to get the next chapter out tomorrow, but I will try. If I can't then it will just come out the next day.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay this is a long chapter! I really like this chapter too, so I hope you all enjoy it! And also, thank you for all the kind comments about how I portrayed Makoto. I expected to get hate but I got none of that, instead I just got very kind reviews about how I wrote him. So yeah, thanks a bunch guys!**

**Disclaimer: ****************Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

"Matsuoka, I need to talk to you" Rin looked up to see his math teacher standing in front of him. The lesson had just ended and he realised he was the only one left in the classroom.

"Yes, Sensei?" he asked, wondering what he had done wrong.

"Have you been tutoring Nanase lately? Because I noticed improvement for one lesson, but there has been no other improvement from there. How many lessons have you had with him?"

"Uh..." Rin sighed and rubbed the back of his head "...one lesson"

"One lesson? That's all? I thought you told me you weren't busy in the afternoons"

"I'm not" Rin reassured "I just...things came up is all. I'll tutor Nanase tonight and tomorrow night as well"

"Good" the teacher nodded "because he really needs those lessons, and I think it's best that he gets them from you"

The redhead raised an eyebrow "Why's that?"

"Because...how do I explain this?" the teacher mumbled, holding a hand to his chin "Whenever Nanase is in my class, he seems very far off. But I noticed whenever he's with you, he comes back to Earth. So you're probably the best tutor for him"

Rin frowned "I think you're seeing things Sensei"

The man laughed and shook his head "No, I'm not that old. Just make sure you tutor him tonight, okay?"

The redhead nodded, bowed and walked out the door. He sighed as he walked towards the school exit

_"Hopefully Makoto won't find out..."_

...

Haruka was lying on the ground of his house, holding a light pink envelope above him. He stared at it, wondering what he should do with it. He knew the right thing to do was to give it to Rin, but that meant Rin would date that girl, and that frustrated him for some reason.

He had considered opening it multiple times, and each time he thought about it, the closer he got to opening it. He was curious as to what the girl had said to Rin, wondering just how she felt about him.

With curiosity getting the better of him, Haruka sat up and opened the envelope. This was an invasion of privacy and he knew it, but he had to know what it was that girl said.

He opened it carefully, making sure not to tear it, and set the empty envelope down on the table. Finally, with a long sigh, he unfolded the letter and began to read it.

_Dear Matsuoka Rin,_

_You probably don't know who I am, you probably haven't even seen or acknowledged me, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about you. Every day I see you walk into class with a bright smile, and I can't help but fall in love with it._

_At first I thought I had just fallen for your looks, but when I saw you stand up for your friend, Nanase kun, I realised just how much of a great person you are._

_I have fallen for you, not just because of your looks, but because of your personality. I have fallen for everything about you and my heart speeds up when ever I see or hear you. I can't help feeling this burning emotion for you, and I need to let you know._

_I have fallen in love with you, and I would like to know how you feel about me. Please meet me behind the gym after school on Monday._

The girl had written her name at the bottom and Haru felt himself getting agitated. Why was this letter working him up so much? It was just some words on paper, but...they were strong words. Strong words like _love_...a word he had never used, one he didn't really understand.

All he knew was he loved water and mackerel, but was that a different kind of love to what this girl felt for Rin? Surely they couldn't be much different, right?

The doorbell rang and Haru yelled out "Coming" before putting the letter back in the envelope and getting up.

He opened the front door to see Rin standing behind it, and the two said nothing as they stared at each other.

"Yo-" Rin greeted before having the door slammed in his face.

The redhead blinked before snarling slightly and banged on the door "Oi, Haru! I came over to tutor you so open this damn door!"

The door opened again and Haru glared at the teen "I thought you had a family dinner"

"You know I lied about that" Rin sighed, now trying to avoid Haru's gaze

"Why did you lie to me?"

"Because..." Rin rubbed the back if his neck while trying to think of an excuse "...I haven't been getting much sleep, so I've been trying to catch up on it"

It wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either. He couldn't tell Haru that Makoto was threatening him, the two had been friends for years and Haru would never believe him, he'd just think it was another lie.

Haru continued to stare at Rin, trying to decide whether or not he was telling the truth, but seeing the bags under the teens crimson eyes convinced him.

"If you needed to sleep you could've just told me..." Haru mumbled "I thought...you were avoiding me"

Rin chuckled lightly and smiled when seeing the small, embarrassed blush on Haru's face. He walked through the door and slung his arm around the smaller teens shoulders.

"You know I couldn't avoid you, we both can't stand being a part from each other!" he said the last part with sappy sarcasm in his voice, making Haru frown and push him off.

Rin chuckled and took his shoes off, then followed Haru into the living room. Everything was as spotless as always, and the flower crown was still sitting on the shelf in the corner.

Haru began walking off and Rin frowned "Where are you going?"

"To my room to get my books" the teen answered, disappearing down the hall.

Rin sighed, sat down at the table and stretched, then looked down to see a pink envelope. He frowned when realising it was the envelope that was given to Haru this morning.

The redhead picked it up to see it was already opened, then turned it over to see Haru's name written on the back...or was it? He looked at the kanji closer and realised it was his name, making his eyes widen.

"Rin, isn't tomorrow a public holiday...what are you looking at?"

The raven haired teen stared at his friend, who was sitting on the ground and staring at a small, pink envelope.

A small...pink...

Haru's eyes widened in horror as he realised he left it on the table and dropped his books, jumped forward and landed on top of the redhead, quickly taking the envelope. He had no idea what he was doing, but all he knew was he had to get the letter away from Rin. Why did he have to do this? Because then Rin would start dating that girl, and Haru didn't want that happening.

"What are you doing?!" Rin questioned, who was pinned to the floor by Haru.

"It's not yours!" the teen immediately said back

"It has my name on it!"

"That doesn't make it yours!"

Rin growled and flipped their position, which took Haru by surprise as he had no idea how strong Rin actually was.

The letter was taken from his hand and he gasped "H-hey! Give it back!"

Rin sat on the smaller teen, who was struggling under him, and took the letter out from the envelope. He started reading through it and Haru stopped struggling, knowing it was too late.

Once the redhead was finished reading, he looked down at Haru and asked "Why did you want to stop me from reading this?" the smaller teen said nothing and moved his eyes to the side.

"Haru" Rin growled, placing his hands either side of Haru's head.

When he still didn't answer, Rin bent down so their noses were only inches a part.

"Answer me, Haruka"

Haru looked into dark, crimson eyes and shivered slightly. The way Rin said his name was so...quiet, and almost silky.

_"Wait...what?!"_ he thought, feeling his cheeks heat up _"W-what is wrong with me?! Why am I feeling like this?! My body...my body is burning all over! I must be getting the flu, this isn't natural!"_

"Rin..." Haru muttered, placing his hands on the teen's shoulders "...get off"

"Answer my question" Rin demanded, still keeping his face close to Haruka's.

"R-Rin..." Haru stuttered, sounding breathless. He clenched the teen's shirt and curled his toes, feeling his whole body tense and shiver.

_"Whats happening?"_ he thought _"Why do I feel...so excited? Why is my body...so hot?"_

Rin raised an eyebrow when seeing the teen below him shaking "Haru?"

Haru made a high pitched mewling noise, surprising both him and Rin. Haru quickly put his hand over his mouth and let his hair fall over his eyes.

"What...was that?" Rin asked, now sitting up slightly.

"...you're heavy" Haru lied, his body still burning

"But I'm not putting my weight on you"

"You're annoying"

"You're not getting out of it that easily"

"Get off me"

"Answer my question"

"..."

Haru went quiet once more, but decided he had to get Rin off him, or more weird things would happen.

"I don't want you to go out with that girl"

"Do you like her?"

"No"

"Then why?" Rin asked, moving his hand to Haru's forehead and pushing black hair back to see ocean blue eyes. He did this because Rin discovered Haru's eyes always gave away how he was feeling, so he could tell if the teen was lying or not. While doing this, Rin noticed how hot Haru had gotten.

"...I don't know" the teen finally answered

Rin stared into Haruka's eyes. They were shimmering slightly, but he couldn't see one bit of guilt in them.

Deciding he was telling the truth, Rin sighed and stood up "Well...I'm not going to go out with her anyway. I don't want a girlfriend at the moment"

Haru felt relief wash over him and he had no idea why, but what he did know was his body was still hot and he needed a cold bath.

"Where are you going?" Rin asked

"Having a bath..." Haru answered bluntly

Rin was about to stop him, but remembered how hot the teen was when feeling his forehead.

"Tsk...fine, but be quick. Oh, and can I sleep over tonight?"

Haru stiffened "Why?"

"Well, why not?" Rin shrugged "Tomorrow is a public holiday and I don't really want to go home, considering we are probably going to be staying up late tonight. My mum has gone to her sister's for the night anyway, so the house will be empty."

"No"

"Aww come on Haru!" Rin whined, throwing his arm around the teen for the second time that day "We haven't had a sleepover in ages!"

"F-fine!" Haruka said, jumping away from the teen's touch "but...don't touch me!"

Rin watched in confusion as Haru ran off, and he scratched the top of his head "Jeez...what's with him today? And that sound he made..."

Rin shook his head and sighed, then picked up the books Haru had dropped.

Haruka was pacing towards the bathroom and slammed the door closed when he got there, then fell to his knees, hugged himself tightly and panted heavily.

"_Ah..._" he moaned quietly, his body tingling as if it were on fire. He knew he shouldn't have let Rin sleep over, but he had to get the teen off him. Rin just made his body feel...strange. He didn't know if this was a good strange or a bad strange, but it was definitely Rin's doing.

"A-ah..." he moaned again, squeezing his legs together to feel a pain between them.

_"This is a bad strange,"_ he thought _"this is definitely, definitely a bad strange!"_

...

"So where am I sleeping?" Rin asked, sitting on the couch in the corner and watching TV. Haruka was sitting at the table and drawing something, drawing always calmed him down.

"Out here on the futon"

"Awww, not in your room?" Rin teased, chuckling when he saw Haru freeze.

"We're not kids anymore" he stated, getting up and putting his sketch book back on the shelf.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rin questioned "You think I'm gonna pull a move on you or something?" Haruka felt his eye twitch and grabbed a pillow on the couch, then smothered Rin's face with it.

"Kidding, kidding!" Rin said frantically, taking a deep breath when the pillow was off his face.

Haru sighed and sat down next to the teen "You have to get the futon yourself"

"But I'm the guest"

"You wanted to stay here, I didn't offer. Therefor, you're not my guest"

Rin frowned and turned back to the TV "You're so cold...could you at least make cocoa?"

"Why? It's almost midnight"

"Because Nagisa told me you make the best cocoa, so I want to see if it's true"

Haruka sat still for a moment, then stood up and walked towards the kitchen. Rin could hear the sounds of a kettle boiling and feet shuffling around, and wasn't really paying much attention to the TV as he was listening to the sounds in the kitchen. Haru came back after a few minuets with two steaming mugs of cocoa in his hands, topped with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles.

Rin stared at the drink once it was handed to him, surprised at how professional it looked.

"You're not going to drink it?" Haruka asked, already drinking his own

"No I am but...it looks too good to drink"

"Home economics is my second best subject" Haru mumbled, blushing slightly from the compliment.

Rin chuckled "That's right, I forgot about that"

He ate the whipped cream on top and took a long, slow sip. Now he knew what Nagisa meant, it tasted like liquid gold. Not only that but it was somehow the perfect temperature to drink straight away, he didn't even have to blow on it.

"Do you...like it?" Haru mumbled, giving the teen a shy look

"This is delicious!" he declared, turning to look at Haru and laughing at what he saw

"What?" the raven haired teen asked, raising an eyebrow

"You have a whipped cream mustache!" Rin laughed, watching as Haru's face went tomato red

"S-shut up!" Haru snapped, wiping the cream off his face and trying to ignore the redhead's laughter.

Once the two had finished their drinks, their eyes went heavy and they both slumped back on the couch. Rin felt he couldn't keep his eyes open much longer and looked at Haru to see the teen was just as tired.

He smirked as a thought came to mind, and fell onto Haru's lap. The teen jumped slightly and looked down to see Rin's head in his lap.

"R-Rin! If you want to sleep, go get the futon!"

"Mmm...too tired, can't I just sleep here?"

Haru went silent as he looked at the teen, feeling his body start to heat up once more.

"Rin..." he complained, but got no response "...Rin?"

The teen had already fallen asleep, and Haru sighed once realising this "You must have really been tired..." he muttered, combing his fingers through red hair and getting a sound of content from the teen below him.

"...your hair is really soft, Rin..."

* * *

**I think blushing Haru is super adorable so you're probably gonna see a lot of that. Also, Home Economics is actually Haru's second best subject, the creator himself said that. So I thought his cocoa would be amazingly delicious.**

**Chapters may be coming out after two or three days now, maybe even four. School has started up again since I live in Australia, I also have a job too so yeah, I am sorry if they do come out late. Also, I still haven't finished this story. Some chapters haven't been written out yet, and I would like to catch up on those. I hope you still stay with this story though, and I will try not to bring chapters out too late.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**I am so sorry for not updating earlier. I planned to update this two days ago but I got sick, and it was one of those flu's where your brain just kinda dies and refuses to do anything. I am still sick but I needed to update! So hopefully you all enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: ****************Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

Birds sang as the bright, morning light shined through the window and onto a teen's face, making him groan. His crimson eyes slowly fluttered open and he looked up to see a figure standing over him.

"Haru...?" Rin asked, his vision still coming into focus.

He wished he never opened his eyes as there, right in front of him, stood Makoto. He was giving Rin a glare that would make even the devil cower in fear.

"M-Makoto?!" Rin stuttered, now sitting up and backing into the couch.

The teen said nothing, just continued to glare down at the redhead on the couch.

"Makoto!" Haru called from the kitchen "Could you help me carry these?"

"Coming!" Makoto answered back, then leaned down to be eye level with Rin and whispered "We'll talk about this later"

Rin watched the teen walk out and tugged at his hair "Shit, shit, shit" he muttered under his breath "I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm fucking dead!"

He looked down at his lap to see a large white quilt, making him raise an eyebrow. There was also a pillow where his head had been.

_"Did Haru put these here?"_ he thought _"What happened last night? I...oh yeah, I fell asleep in Haru's lap"_ Rin's cheeks faded to a light red _"So then...Haru must have put these here"_

He heard a sound coming from the kitchen and turned to see the raven haired teen walking out with two plates in his hands.

"Rin," the teen said, turning to the redhead "you're awake"

Behind him was Makoto, who was still glaring at him. He felt his face go pale as he stared into those violent, green eyes.

"Ah y-yeah, good morning. What's the time?"

"Almost ten" Haru answered, putting the two plates down on the table.

"Really? I better go, my mum would be worried" that was a lie, Rin knew his mum wasn't worried since she was expecting him to be home around noon, as he had told her on the phone the night before.

Haru's eyes widened slightly "Do you have to go? Right now?"

Rin yawned and stood up "Why? Do you want me to stay?"

The raven haired teen said nothing and looked away, a light blush on his cheeks and...was that disappointment in his eyes?

_"Well that was a reaction I wasn't expecting..."_ Rin thought, still staring at the teen.

"He made breakfast" Makoto interjected "but you don't have to eat it, you can go if you want"

Even though Makoto said that in a sickly sweet voice, his eyes were saying _get the fuck out._

Rin stood still as he thought about what to do. On one side was Haru, looking disappointed and not wanting him to go. On the other side was Makoto, giving a look that could kill and telling him to go. What was more important? His life or making Haruka happy?

"I guess..." Rin muttered, rubbing the back of his head "...I can eat breakfast, don't want it to go to waste"

A light flickered over blue eyes while fire burned over green. Rin sighed as he knew Makoto would kill him, but he'll deal with it later.

The three sat down at the table and Rin looked over the food. Curry, rice, mackerel, mackerel, mackerel and...mackerel.

_"God dammit Haru"_ Rin thought, smiling to himself _"Well it's a good thing I like mackerel then"_

There was silence as the three teenagers started eating, and Rin could feel Makoto's eyes on him the whole time.

"So Rin," Makoto smiled, making said teen jump "why did you sleep over at Haru's last night?"

Before Rin could say anything, Haru answered for him

"He was tutoring me and I told him he could sleep over"

Rin could feel a sense of triumph. If Haru answered for him then Makoto could see the teen had wanted him over.

Rin looked up to see Makoto frowning slightly as he wasn't expecting Haru to answer. Now feeling confident, Rin asked "And why are you here, Makoto?"

It went quiet as the brunette didn't answer, Rin could feel himself smirking as Makoto's eyes darkened. He was expecting Haru to answer for him and Rin knew it, but Haru wasn't saying anything and just continued eating.

After a few more seconds of silence Makoto finally answered "I'm here because I planned to go shopping with Haru today"

"Shopping?" Rin questioned "What do you need to get?"

"Swimsuits" Haru answered

"Don't you have enough?" Rin asked

"Haru you're not getting anymore swimsuits, it's a waste of money"

"It's never a waste of money"

The brunette and redhead sighed in unison as Haru continued eating.

"Well I have to get some school supplies" Makoto continued "and Haru needs to get more clothes, since he keeps complaining about them."

"And he has to go with mummy Makoto to get clothes, does he?"

Haruka pouted and Makoto laughed lightly, although Rin could hear a dark tone to it.

"Well we're actually going to watch a movie after, that's the main reason we're going"

Rin raised an eyebrow with a bored expression on his face, then sighed and stood up "Well, I've finished eating so I'm going home now. Thanks for the food, Haru"

"You should come..." Haru muttered, looking down at the table.

Rin looked at him, confused "Huh?"

"You should come shopping with us..." Haru muttered once more, looking embarrassed.

Rin's eyes widened and he turned to Makoto to see him just as surprised. The redhead was going to decline until he realised something. Haruka had invited him, Haruka wanted him to come, so could Makoto really get mad at him for this? Haruka actually wanted him to be there, so there was no way Makoto could blame him for this.

"Well...I don't see why not"

Makoto scowled and Haruka's eyes brightened, making the redhead smile to see those shining blue orbs.

Today was going to be interesting...

...

"So what clothes are you looking for exactly?" Rin asked, turning next to him to see the teen gone "...where'd he go?"

Makoto, who was standing next to him, started looking around "Don't tell me he's already found a water tank"

Rin narrowed his eyes to look into the shops and spotted the raven haired teen "Found him!" he announced, walking over to the shop with Makoto.

Rin walked up to the teen and sighed when seeing Haru looking at swimsuits "I don't know how you can just disappear like that, but how about you stop doing that?"

Haru ignored him as he continued looking at swimsuits, then picked one up and said "I'm trying this one"

Before he could get to the change rooms, Makoto grabbed him by the collar "We're looking for clothes, not swimsuits, put it back"

Haruka pouted slightly and gave Makoto a look of complaint, but put the swimsuits back anyway. Rin couldn't help but chuckle as Haru looked like a child that didn't get what they wanted. Now he could see why Haruka needed someone to go with him when shopping.

The three began to walk through the stores together, Makoto and Rin both helping Haru pick out clothes while Rin avoided being near Makoto as much as possible. He could feel a dark aura emitting from the brunette and Rin knew he was a dead man.

After a few hours of shopping, Haru was holding a few bags full of clothes and Makoto had one bag full of school supplies. Rin was also holding holding a few bags, which were full of swimsuits.

"I can't believe you made us all buy swimsuits, and how many did you buy for yourself anyway?" Rin growled

Haru looked ahead in thought before answering "Ten"

"T-ten?!" Rin stuttered, almost tripping "How much money do you have?!"

"Doesn't matter"

"Of course it matters! Do your parents give you money?!"

A look of pain flashed across ocean blue eyes for a split second before the teen looked away and said nothing. Rin raised an eyebrow and he felt a strong elbow hit him in the side.

"Don't mention Haru's parents," Makoto growled "he's not on good terms with them."

Rin gave Makoto a questioning look and turned back to Haru to see the usual poker face. Now that Rin thought about it, he had never really seen Haru's parents. Whenever he went over to his friend's house as kids they were never there, it was always his grandma.

"Who's paying for the movie?" Haru asked, stopping outside the theatre.

Rin raised an eyebrow "What do you mean? Aren't we paying for our own tickets?"

Haru said nothing as he stood still and refused to look at the two next to him.

Rin stared at Haru as he realised what was wrong "Haru...don't tell me you spent the rest of your money on swim suits" Haru pouted and looked away with a light blush on his cheeks.

"Haru!" Makoto whined "You told me you had enough money left!"

The teen's blush deepened and Rin sighed "Fine, I'll pay for your ticket, but you owe me"

Haru said nothing and walked toward the ticket line, making both Rin and Makoto sigh before following him.

...

"I don't understand that movie" Rin said for the tenth time that day.

"It's not that hard to understand" Haru stated, making Rin frown.

"Shut up! Not like you understood it either! If you did understand it then why does everyone stay twenty five for their whole lives!"

Haru said nothing and stared ahead, ignoring Rin's question.

The redhead gave him an annoyed look and turned next to him to see Makoto, who seemed awfully quiet. He noticed the brunette's green eyes looked dark, but tried to pay no attention to it.

When the three walked up the steps and went past Makoto's house, Rin turned next to him to see the teen still there.

"Uh...Makoto, aren't you going home?" the redhead asked.

Makoto turned to the smaller teen and smiled "I thought I'd walk back with you guys, wasn't your house further back anyway?" Rin could hear a dark tone in Makoto's voice.

"Uh...yeah, but I'm holding Haru's swimsuits" he held up the bag as if to prove his point. The brunette gave him a light scowl before looking back ahead.

Finally reaching Haru's house, Rin gave the raven haired teen his bag full of swimsuits. Haru grabbed it, thanked him, said goodbye to the two teens and walked back into his house.

At that point, Rin realised he had made the biggest mistake of his life, he realised he was now alone with Makoto. What was even worse was Rin had to walk past Makoto's house to get to his own, which meant he had to walk back with Makoto.

It was silent as the two of them walked back, and Rin tried to distance himself from the brunette as much as possible.

Breaking the silence, Makoto asked "Why did you come with us?"

_"So he speaks..."_ Rin thought, feeling his forehead start to sweat.

"Haru invited me," he answered "I just thought accepting his offer was the right thing to do"

"You know damn well it wasn't!" Makoto spat, now losing his temper.

Rin backed away slight as he saw the violent fire in Makoto's green eyes. Rin knew this was going to happen but...Haru was his friend too.

Makoto grabbed Rin by the collar and held him close to his face "You always get in the way, and what was with that sleepover last night? Why are trying to get near him? I told you to stay away from him!"

The redhead frowned and his eyebrows furrowed, now he was mad. Sure Makoto was tall, muscly and intimidating, but Rin could be just as fierce.

He grabbed the brunette's arms and squeezed them "Will you just shut up?"

Makoto raised a confused eyebrow "Huh?"

"I said _SHUT UP!_" Rin repeated, yelling in Makoto's face. He tore the teens hands off him and sneered, showing his sharp teeth.

"You clearly refuse to listen to me! Haru and I are just _FRIENDS!_ I have no feelings for him apart from that! I haven't seen him since going to Australia and I need to tutor him, so you can't keep me away from him! Even if you do fight me and beat me up, Haru will ask me who did it. Oh, just imagine his face when I tell him who it was. You will break his little heart, and the trust he has for you will shatter! Haru clearly cares about me, he wants to hang out with me, he even asked me to come along on this little shopping trip of yours."

Rin stepped right in front of Makoto, their faces only inches a part.

"You may be able to keep me from Haru, but you can't keep Haru from me. Since you clearly don't want to show Haru this violent side, then there's no way you can stop him from wanting to be around me."

Makoto stared into the redheads glowing red eyes, seeing they were full of hate. He narrowed his eyes and then, unexpectedly, began to laugh. Rin stepped back as he saw the teen had doubled over, holding his stomach in bursts of laughter.

Once he gained control of himself, Makoto stood up and wiped a tear from his eye. "You think I don't understand how you feel for Haru? I know very well that you just see him as a friend"

Rin's eyebrows raised in surprise at Makoto's statement, "Then...why?"

"Because..." Makoto explained "it's not how _you_ feel about Haru, but how Haru feels about _you_. He may not admit to it, but I can clearly see it. And the more time Haru spends with you, the less time it will take for him to realise it."

Rin's eyes widened and Makoto grabbed Rin's collar, pulling their faces together once more, but this time Makoto had this scary, almost psychotic smirk on his lips.

"And you may say you're just friends" the brunette whispered "but I can see you're feeling much more than that, you always have. You just keep denying it to yourself, ever since we were kids you've been denying it, and I have always seen it."

Makoto roughly let go of the redhead by shoving him away and walked down a few more steps before turning back and adding "Oh, and if Haru invites you to something like this again, you _will_ deny the invitation. So don't make me repeat myself"

With that Makoto turned a corner and he was gone, leaving Rin standing there confused. He was trying to understand what the other had said, what he meant by when he said _the more time Haru spends with you, the less time it will take for him to realise it._

_It_...what was _it_?" What did he mean by that? Haru didn't fell anything for him, Rin had never seen Haru have any feelings of love towards anyone. Rin sure didn't feel anything for Haru and he knew that...he definitely knew that...he probably knew that...did he know that?

Rin growled and tugged at his hair _"Fuck you Makoto, now you've just made things even more complicated and confusing then they should be..."_

* * *

**The movie they were talking about is called _I__n Time _by the way and you should definitely watch it. Also the thing with Haru's swimsuits, I thought ten was too many, but then I realised it wasn't. This is Haru we're talking about after all.**

**I will try to get the next chapter out earlier if I can, so please hang in there!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Oh my god this chapter took _ages _to edit! But that's only because I wanted to try and make this perfect.**

**I don't think I mentioned this, but Haruka's parents are in this story, and like Makoto I have my own view of them. So my image of them may be completely different from yours.**

**Anyway, this chapter contains a _lot _of RinHaru, so I hope you enjoy it! (Also may be some OOC Haruka in this, but that's just how you look at it I suppose.)**

******Disclaimer: ****************Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

Haruka sat at his desk, feeling his eyes droop as his vision was slowly going dark. He was in geography now, and god was it boring. The only classes he really stayed awake in were art and home economics, since those are the two subjects he's best at. He also stayed awake through most of music, since most lessons would be lively and sometimes even interesting.

His desk suddenly shook as someone kicked it and he sat up with wide eyes, turning next to him to see Rin giving him a slight glare. Haru sighed and turned back to the front to see the teacher with his back to the class and going on about god knows what.

When the bell finally rang, Haru yawned and stretched. That was the last lesson, which meant he could finally go home and sleep since swimming practice wasn't on that day. The raven haired teen felt someone looming over him and looked up to see Rin with his arms crossed and a stern frown on his lips, his red eyes staring down into blue ones.

"You know, the reason you're failing classes is because you keep falling asleep" Rin stated "Maybe I should sit next to you in all your classes just so I can keep you awake."

"You're too smart for my classes" Haru retorted sarcastically, although he knew it was true. Rin was surprisingly smart, as was Gou. Maybe it was just natural for a Matsuoka to have a good brain...?

Rin scowled at the teen "You could be in my classes if you tried. I'm not born smart you know, I study"

"Of course" Haru yawned, no longer caring. He never believed that someone was born smart, but he always believed that someone was born with the endurance and dedication to study. Haru knew he wasn't born with that capability, since he would get distracted too easily or simply fall asleep.

That was the weird thing when he was being tutored by Rin though, he wouldn't lose focus on the work he was doing. He had no idea why, but he would always pay attention to Rin's words and usually wouldn't forget a thing he said. Haru could even remember some conversations he had with the redhead from when they were children, which kind of freaked him out.

"I'm serious Haru" Rin frowned "you're actually pretty smart, you just need to try!"

Haru's brow furrowed "How many times do you think my parents have said that to me...?"

Rin was about to answer until he remembered what Makoto had said;

_"Haru isn't on good terms with his parents right now."_

The redheads mouth shut and he watched as Haru stood up and packed his books away. Rin sighed and shoved a hand into his pocket while the other slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Well, I'm tutoring you tonight. We have some lessons to catch up on, so we're probably going to be studying late."

Haru groaned and Rin frowned, leaned forward and flicked the smaller teen in the forehead. Haru made a noise of complaint and put a hand to where he had been flicked.

Rin smirked slightly "It's for your own good, so make it sound like you appreciate it or I'll feel like I'm wasting my time on you."

Haru pouted but didn't say anything, instead he picked up his bag, walked out the door and ignored the redhead. Rin chuckled and shook his head, then quickly followed the teen.

While they were walking home together, Rin turned to Haru and asked "Is Makoto going to be coming over tonight?"

Haru shook his head "No, he has an extra afternoon class today. So he will be going straight home after that and is always too exhausted to come over afterwards."

Rin held back a sigh of relief and instead responded with "Oh" then continued to normally chat with his best friend.

Once the two of them reached Haruka's house, the raven haired teen looked down at the door handle and stared at it for a while. Rin stared at him as he stared at the door, making him raise a questioning eyebrow.

After a few minute's of standing there, Rin asked "What's wrong? Is it broken?"

"It's unlocked" Haru instantly responded.

Rin's eyes widened "Haru...there could be some dangerous person in there..."

Haru nodded to show he had acknowledged what Rin said, but put his hand on the door handle and slid it open anyway.

Both Rin and Haru's eyes widened as they saw a tall woman with long black hair and sky blue eyes talking on the phone in the hallway. She turned when hearing the door open and hung up the phone when seeing the two boys standing in the doorway.

Rin was about to ask who she was until Haru said "...mother"

The redhead turned to Haru to see his eyes wide and bright, and his eyebrows raised in surprise. Rin recognised it as a look of...happiness. A look Rin hadn't seen much of since the teen would have a poker face on most of the time.

The women started walking towards them and Haru stepped forward, only to have her walk straight past him, almost as if he were a ghost who had been walked through.

She stopped once she was outside the doorway, turned back and said "Your father and I are here for business, but your father is still at work. A hotel is expensive, so we will be staying here for a week...who is this person that's with you?"

"My name is Rin Matsuoka" the teen answered, bowing deeply "I am a childhood friend, and I am also Haru's tutor"

She stared at him for a while. Looking him up and down once, then twice, then raising a judgemental eyebrow before saying "I don't remember you, you don't even look familiar." Rin wanted to say it was because she was never there, but instead let her continue "But, if Haruka's grades go up, it doesn't matter. If I don't see improvement I am finding him a new tutor."

With that she was gone, and Rin realised she hadn't even greeted her son. The redhead turned to Haru to see his eyes quivering, a pained expression across his face. Rin noticed it was the exact same expression as when he told the teen he wouldn't swim with him anymore as children.

"Haru..." Rin muttered, stepping forward and putting a hand on said teens shoulder.

Haru flinched and let his hair fall over his eyes "...we should get on with the tutoring now" he mumbled before shrugging the hand off him.

Rin watched him walk off with a look of worry, and quickly followed him into the living room where the raven haired teen was already taking his books out.

"Haru...are you okay?" the redhead asked, knowing there was something different about his friend.

"Of course I'm okay..." Haru answered, still searching through his bag "Today was a good day, everything went fine. So why are you asking me if I'm okay?"

There was a choked sob and Rin's eyebrows furrowed. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed the teen's shoulder, then roughly turned Haru to face him. Rin's eyes widened as he saw tears falling from ocean blue eyes, something that he had never seen before.

Haruka's body started shaking and he slapped the teen's hand off him "Don't touch me!" he yelled, making Rin stumble back.

The teen put a hand over his eyes and started sobbing, trying to hide his face from the redhead as he did so.

"H-Haru..." Rin stuttered, slowly walking towards him.

"Don't look at me!" Haru yelled, now covering his face with both hands "Stop it! Stop looking at me!"

Rin stopped and stared at Haru as the teen repeated this over and over, watching as tears fell through his fingers and onto the floor.

Was this what it was like for Haru to watch Rin cry? Was this what it felt like? Because...it hurt. It hurt to see Haru cry, and Rin could feel his chest tightening as the sobs and yells got louder. He had never seen Haru cry before, the teen had always hid his emotions. But now it felt like everything was coming out, it felt as if all of Haruka's emotions of sadness and anger were being held in a tight glass container, and the container had finally shattered to let those emotions flow out all at once.

How...how could one women make him have such a reaction? It made Rin so mad, it made him want to punch her. It was wrong for him to think that, and he knew it, but he couldn't stand watching Haru cry, it was too painful. It was even Haru's mother, it was his mother that made him cry. But...that's not how mother's should be, so why did seeing her make Haru like this?

The redhead stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Haru's shaking, sobbing form. He felt Haru stiffen slightly, but then he started shaking even more and sobbed louder.

Rin hated that sound, god did he hate that sound. He'd do anything to stop that sound, the sound of Haru in pain. It was horrible, it was horrible to hear his friend in pain, and he almost felt like crying himself.

The two sat in each other's embrace, and no matter how many times Haru told Rin to leave, Rin would sit still and comfort him. He just wanted the sounds of pain to stop, he would do anything for them to stop...

...

Neither teen knew how much time had passed, but Haru sat still with red, tear stained eyes. Rin was sitting next to him, not saying a word.

Eventually, Rin could no longer hold in his curiosity and muttered "Please...tell me about your relationship with your parents"

Haru sat quietly, staring at the floor and feeling his eyes still stinging from the tears he had shed. He felt like he should tell Rin, but...he didn't want Rin to worry about him.

"Haruka, please" Rin begged "It seems Makoto knows, so why won't you tell me?"

"...Makoto doesn't know," Haru mumbled "he just knows that I'm on bad terms with them..."

"Then please tell me why you're on bad terms with them" Rin begged again, giving Haru a worried look.

Haruka was quiet once more, but after a while decided he needed to tell someone. He knew he couldn't keep it from Rin much longer, so he might as well tell him now.

"My parents are workaholics, they've been like that since I was a child. Ever since I was born, they were never there, and when they were there, it would be for some work related get together. They'd introduce me to the other employees like I was some object, and everyone would always ask if I had any hope for the future. They would always say the same thing;

_He is still young, but he doesn't seem to be excelling at anything. The only thing he is good at is art, which is useless. We are hoping he will change as he gets older._

Because of them, I was never proud of my art skills. It made me feel useless, like I would never achieve to anything in life. The only person who really admired me for my art skills was my grandma, who would always look after me. She taught me how to make some dishes and showed me other drawing methods, which my parents strongly discouraged.

Because my parents both worked at the same job, they would go away for work together. Sometimes they would be gone for a day, other times it would be weeks. My grandma couldn't look after me all the time, so I was alone most of the time. I ended up having to cook my own meals, wash my own clothes, and not have to rely on anyone.

Then, when I was thirteen, my grandma died. That was when I decided I didn't need to rely on anyone, that was when I decided I was truly on my own. My grandma was the only one to look after me, to care about me, and she was gone.

That was also around the time...when you told me you quit swimming..."

Rin felt a sharp pain stab through his chest, his eyes widening as he looked at Haru's pained expression. He was going to say something, but Haru continued with his story.

"I gave up on school after that, I saw no point to it. I thought _If I'm not good at it, what's the point in trying?_

My parents told me over and over that if I tried, I would be successful. But even though I was trying through all of elementary school, I never was successful, and my grades never got better. So they continued to get mad at me, and the only conversations we would have would be about how I would get nowhere in life.

I told myself it was true, I knew I would get nowhere in life. I would always think what the point of life was if life was just working until you die. So every night I would lock myself in my room to block everything out, and my parents just started to ignore me.

When they had another one of their work parties, the new employees would ask who I was, and my parents would say;

_He is no one, just ignore him. He won't amount to anything in life._

People would tell my parents that what they were saying was harsh, and I thought people cared about me, but when they explained how I was they took my parents side. No one was going to defend a junior high school student that wouldn't even try, and they were right not to do so. I was pathetic, after all.

After that I was getting lonelier and lonelier, so after a while I wanted my parents attention. One day, when it was a day off for both of them, I asked if we could have dinner together, and they walked straight past me. They didn't say anything to me, they completely ignored me.

I started trying to talk to them, I tried to have conversations with them, but they kept ignoring me. I was treated as if I was no one, like I wasn't even there.

I began to get more and more frantic and I would start yelling at them, I would beg to do something with them. But all they did was yell back at me or just shrug me off, then just continued to ignore me.

They eventually both got sick of it, and when I was sixteen, told me that they both had a promotion and had to go to Tokyo. I thought I was going with them, and I was going to protest because I still had Makoto, but they told me they were leaving me here and that...that really hurt.

They didn't give me an option, they didn't make me come with them, they just left me here. They made it seem like they didn't want me anymore...so after seeing my mother after two years, I remembered what it was like to be ignored by her like that. I thought things might have changed but...I was so stupid to think that..."

Haru started shaking again and Rin could see him trying to force back the tears that were forming in his eyes. But before he could do anything, Haru spoke once more.

"But...that's why I was so happy to see you had come back! I thought;

_This guy...this guy keeps forcing his way into my life, he keeps knocking down these walls that I have built around myself. Why does he do that? Why does he want me to swim for him? Why is he so obsessed about swimming with me?_

And I realised...I realised there was someone on this earth that couldn't handle being ignored by me, I realised you couldn't stand it when I wouldn't answer you or just turned my back to you! It made me so happy...it made me so happy to know that! To know that you _needed_ me to speak! To know you _needed_ to race with me! That you _needed_ to swim with me!

For the first time in my life, instead of me trying to gain someone else's attention, someone was trying to gain _my_ attention! No one has done that before, not even Makoto! Makoto was always by my side, but he would never force me to do or say anything, he would never get mad if I ignored him...but you would! You always did, and that made me so happy!"

Haru turned to Rin with shining eyes, feeling his heartbeat speed up as he stared into the redhead's wide, crimson ones.

"I am so, so grateful to you! Rin! Thank you!" Haruka bowed deeply, making Rin sit back slightly and look down at the teen. He almost couldn't believe what he was hearing, he had never seen this side of Haruka.

Haru sat back up with teary eyes, then gave Rin a small, warm smile.

Rin's eyes shined as he looked at Haru, feeling his chest tightening as he stared at the warm and rare smile. It looked so out of character for Haruka, but at the same time, it looked as if that small smile fitted perfectly on the teen's lips.

Rin suddenly remembered what Makoto had said a few days before;

_"And you may say you're just friends, but I can see you're feeling much more than that, you always have. You just keep denying it to yourself, ever since we were kids you've been denying it, and I have always seen it."_

That's when Rin knew exactly what Makoto was talking about, he knew what Makoto was trying to tell him. These feelings he had been denying for so long, these feelings he had been trying to push back since he was a child.

Ever since he met Haruka, even as children, he felt the boy had some kind of magnetic pull around him. Haru always put him in a kind of trance, but Rin always told himself it was Haru's swimming. But slowly, very slowly, he started to go into that state of trance more and more. Even when Haru wasn't swimming, Rin would stare at him with sparkling eyes, almost as if he was hypnotised.

Even when he came back after a year, Haru still had that affect on him. Even after spending even more years away from Haruka and seeing him again as a teenager, the pull didn't fade away, it just got stronger.

Rin had just ignored it, he would continue to tell himself it was just Haru's swimming. But now, he couldn't deny it. He could no longer ignore it, not after what Haru had said. These feelings weren't something he could deny anymore, especially since he found out exactly what they were.

These were feelings of..._love._

Haruka stared at Rin, now feeling shy and almost embarrassed since he wasn't responding "Uh...Rin?"

Rin blinked, stared at Haru, then blinked again. Now that he knew how he felt, he went silent. He didn't know what to do or say, so he continued to stare.

Haru looked to the side and blushed slightly "I'm...sorry if that sounded weird"

Rin couldn't stop himself from thinking _"God, why is he so cute?"_ and shook his head before any other stray thoughts could appear.

Haru smiled once more and Rin felt himself choke, he felt as though he could look at Haru's smile forever, as cheesy as that sounded.

"T-thank you!" Rin stuttered, his cheeks slightly red "For telling me about your parents, I shouldn't have pushed you!"

Haruka gave the redhead a slight wide eyed look, not expecting to be thanked. It wasn't exactly in his character to do so, but Haru had basically thanked Rin for existing, and that wasn't in _his _character either.

The raven haired teen smiled to himself as he thought of how abnormal this all was, and Haruka always thought about how this strange, loud, annoying redheaded boy had managed to place himself in such an important position in his life in such little time.

Haru couldn't force back his small smile, so he stood up and said "I'm going to make cocoa...do you want one?"

Rin quickly nodded and watched as Haru walked out of the room, his eyes wide as he thought about what had just taken place.

_"Was...Haru smiling? No he wasn't...but he was definitely smiling! Was it...because of me...?" _he grabbed his red hair and tugged at it _"What am I thinking?! Now that I know how I feel about Haru I will..."_ his thoughts stopped for a moment_ "...now that I know...how I feel...about Haru..."_

Rin sat completely still for a moment, before his lips curved into a smile, realising that he was thinking about the whole situation wrong. He imagined how this would feel since he was a child, how it felt to feel this way about someone, and now...he finally felt it. He finally found that one person he can feel this way for.

His face broke out into a large grin and he fell back to the floor, his cheeks slightly flustered and his crimson eyes cloudy as he quietly admitted it to himself.

"I...I love Haruka Nanase..."

Those words sounded so strange coming from his mouth, but at the same time, they sounded too good to be true.

* * *

**Yeeeah okay this chapter was quite the ride!**

**I just want to talk about Haruka in this chapter by saying I don't really think I wrote him out of character. He may seem it, but we have never really seen him in a situation like this. After all, Haruka is human, and everyone in this world has something that will make them break down and cry. I also believe Haruka got that silent, timid, hard to talk to personality because of his parents. I like to think the reason Haruka doesn't like to show himself to others or make friends with anyone is mostly because of his parents. Although I could be completely wrong, which I probably am, and he could just be like that because he is.**

**Anyways I hope you liked this chapter, and I am actually really interested to hear your opinions on this. Of course, I won't force you to say anything, and I am just happy for you to be reading this story!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

**This is the longest, sappiest, and probably most OOC chapter I have ever written (although if it's OOC or not is your opinion). It honestly kind of made me cringe at some points because of all the sappiness. But hey! It is all for the RinHaru! And I hope you all like it anyway because I do like this chapter!**

**********Disclaimer: ****************Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

Ocean blue eyes opened and adjusted as the sun fell onto them. Haruka could feel his head sinking into the soft pillow, then dug his face into it and sighed as he heard yelling outside the door.

It had been four days since his parents had come home, and the second he came home from school he'd go straight to his room. Not because he was told to, not because he was grounded, but he knew his parents didn't want to see his face. The only time he would leave his room would be to get food or go to the bathroom. Sometimes he would just eat on the way home from school.

Although Haru noticed something different about his parents. The last time he had seen them they were both normal around each other and would have work related conversations, but now they kept yelling at each other. Haru always knew when both his parents were home because he would hear them yelling, and it would go on for hours. So Haru would simply put his headphones on and try to block out the sound of his parents shouting at the other.

The first day he did try and listen to their conversation, considering he hadn't heard them yell at each other before. Haruka could only make out a few words, which were _"given up...our son...a chance"_

When hearing those words, Haruka felt his stomach drop. First he ended up being a failure, and now his parents are fighting because of him. Haruka felt like crying, he felt like the most useless and hopeless human being on the planet. So all he wanted to do was block out the conversations his parents were having, for he knew they would just make him feel even worse about himself.

Haru felt his stomach growl and he sighed, knowing he would have to have breakfast soon. Luckily, it was a Sunday, so he didn't have school, which meant he could take as long as he wanted to get up. But Haruka noticed that the yelling had stopped, and he decided that now was the best time to get food.

The teen stood up, stretched, walked towards the door and took a deep breath before opening it. He took a few steps through the narrow corridor before someone bumped into him. Haru stumbled back slightly and looked up to see a tall man wearing black framed glasses. He had very dark, blue eyes and black, wavy hair with a few grey strands. He also had some neatly trimmed stubble on his face. The man didn't even acknowledge Haru as he walked past him, shoving the teen aside with his shoulder and walking out the back door.

Haru's father, like his mother, would just completely ignore him. But he never actually talked to him about his grades unless his mother was there, so Haru would prefer to be around his father more than his mother. There were a few mornings where Haru would be eating at the table while his father would be reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. Those were mornings when Haru actually felt like he was in a family, even though his father never talked to him during those times.

But those moments were short lived, since whenever Haru's mother would walk in they would begin to talk about his grades and what he would do with his life. This would always lead to Haru apologising about how useless of a son he was, then locking himself in his room.

Unlike other parents, who would apologise for yelling at their child and comforting them after an hour or two, Haru's parents never apologised for the hurtful comments and left him to sulk in his room. They always told him he put it on himself, since he couldn't keep his grades up.

Haruka sighed and continued walking down the corridor to the kitchen, only to see his mother standing over the sink. One of her hands was leaning on the sink while the other was on her forehead in a distressed manner.

She was mumbling to herself and her hand was clenching the sink, her knuckles going a pale white. Haru looked at her with wide eyes, feeling as if he should do something. He had never seen her like this, he had never seen her so stressed before.

So slowly, very slowly, he opened his mouth and said "Mother...are you okay?"

The women's head shot up and she turned to see Haruka, frowning when realising it was him. She crossed her arms and gave him a cold look before saying "You shouldn't worry about others, right now you should only be worrying about yourself. Those tutoring lessons seem to be helping you, so you should study today to refresh your memory on things."

She walked straight past Haruka like he was a ghost, as she usually did, and Haru clenched his hand into a fist. All he wanted to do was to help, to see if there was anything wrong with his mother, and she just gave him that disappointed look like she always did.

"Why?" he muttered, making the woman stop and turn.

"Excuse me?"

"Why do you always have to talk to me about my grades! Why can't we have a normal conversation like families should!" Haru burst out, feeling like he was on the verge of tears.

The woman gave him another cold look before turning back around and saying "Because that's all that matters. Having a _normal_ conversation with you would be pointless and a waste of both my and your father's time."

With that she was gone, and Haru felt a rage bubbling up inside him. He stopped trying at school because he knew that, even if his grades would go up to a high level, his parents would continue to talk about it. They would continue to ask him if he was studying every night and would tell him to never stop working. They would tell him that school and work was all that mattered in life, and he needed to keep his grades up.

No matter what he did, Haru knew they would never have a normal conversation. It made him wonder why he was born into this world if all his parents thought what life was, was work. If they thought that, then why did they marry and have a child? It didn't make sense, and Haru felt his throat go dry as his eyes began to water.

He needed to see someone. He needed to see someone that would have a normal conversation with him, someone that wouldn't ignore him and walk through him as if he were a ghost.

So he went back to his room, changed as fast as he could, and ran out the door. He didn't tell his mother where he was going because he knew she wouldn't care. To her he was worthless, to her he was a failure, but he knew there was someone that thought he wasn't any of these things, and Haru _needed_ to see them.

...

A knock came from the door and Rin turned to Gou, who was in the kitchen attempting to make cookies.

"Gou, could you get the door?"

She pouted at him "It's _Kou!_ And why can't you get the door? All you're doing is watching TV!"

"Because I'm comfy!" Rin whined "And until it says Kou on your birth certificate, I will continue to call you Gou."

The girl whined but went to the door anyway, and her eyes widened when seeing a panting, sweating raven haired teen on the other side.

"H-Haruka san?" Gou stuttered, staring at the teen in surprise.

Rin instantly stood up when hearing the teen's name and looked at the door with wide eyes "Haru?"

The teen walked into the house, eyes blank and lifeless. He walked up to Rin and, without saying a word, grabbed Rin's arms and put his head against the redhead's chest.

Rin and Gou both looked at him with wide eyes, and Rin could feel his face heating up "Oi, Haru, what's gotten into you?"

"Parents..." Haru muttered, clenching his hands and digging his fingers into Rin's arms.

Crimson eyes widened once more, and Rin put his arms on Haru's shoulders before whispering "This isn't the place to have this conversation, how about we go to my room?" Haruka nodded and Rin turned to Gou "Um, Gou, can you not mention this to Makoto and the others? If it's okay with Haru I'll tell you what's going on later."

Gou nodded and Rin gave her a thankful look, then the two teens walked off to Rin's room and left Gou in the kitchen to think about what she had just witnessed.

Once in Rin's room, the redhead closed the door and watched as Haruka took a seat on his bed. Rin stood over the smaller teen and gave him a sorrowful look as he stared down at Haru's blank expression.

"...you really surprised me there" Rin sighed "wasn't expecting you to come out of the blue like that...mind telling me what's going on?"

Instead of explaining himself, Haru asked "Rin...do you...usually have normal conversations with your mother?"

Rin raised a questioning eyebrow "Normal conversations with my...?"

He stared at Haru, about to question him as to why he asked that, but realised what was going on as he noticed the teen start shaking.

Rin jumped forward and wrapped his arms around the teen, hearing Haruka break down into silent, choked sobs. Whenever Rin would cry as a child, his mother would wrap him in a tight embrace, and it always helped him calm down.

He didn't know if it would work with Haru, but feeling the shaking begin to stop convinced him that it had calmed him down. Rin would do anything to stop Haru from crying, he just couldn't stand the pained sobs that would escape from his best friend.

Rin knew Haru was depressed about his parents coming home. Through the four days of school that they had been home, Haru would look much more out of it and spaced out than he usually did. Even during swimming practice he began to zone out and would just stop swimming in the middle of the pool to sink underwater and swim around in random directions.

Makoto would glare at Rin, as he knew something was wrong with Haru. Haruka would deny Makoto's request of spending the afternoon at his house, and of course the brunette thought it was Rin's fault. But Rin didn't want to tell the brunette that Haru's parents were over, as he knew Haru would tell Makoto if he wanted to.

"They are...always fighting" Haru suddenly mumbled, making Rin stand back and look at him.

"Come again?"

Haruka clenched his jaw "They are...always yelling at each other...because of me..."

Rin's expression softened as he stared at the pained Haru, and feeling rage for Haruka's parents bubbling up inside him for turning his friend into a wreck.

Rin took a deep breath and smiled softly "How about I go back over to your house? Your parents probably won't yell because I'm there and you can just tell them I'm there to tutor you. Is that a good idea?"

Haruka nodded and stood up, wiping the tears from his eyes "Thank you...Rin"

Rin felt his heart jump when hearing those words, but just continued to smile "Oh and Haru, I'm sure them fighting isn't because of you. And if it's alright with you, can I tell Gou about your parents? Not you crying and everything but just that you're on bad terms with them, because you made quite a scene back there."

Haru nodded once more and the two walked out the door, Haruka now feeling warmer and happier as he walked next to Rin.

...

As the two teens entered the house, loud yelling could be heard. Rin turned to Haru to see his eyes quivering and his hands balled into fists. He was clearly trying to hold back the tears again. Rin frowned and walked on to Haru's room, determined to stop the teen's parents from yelling.

Rin stopped when reaching the kitchen and seeing both of Haru's parents yelling at each other. Haru quickly followed after him and stood in the doorway with Rin, also watching his parents yell.

Haruka frowned and said "Mother, father..." making the two stop and turn toward the teens. Haru's mother's eyes widened when seeing Rin and she straightened her posture.

"Haruka...and Rin, was it?"

Haru's father glared at the redhead "What's he doing here Haruka?"

Before Haru could answer, Rin answered for him "I'm here because Haru wanted to spend time with his friend"

"Rin!" Haru exclaimed, blue eyes widening in shock.

"I'm sorry Haru, but what's wrong with just spending time with you anyway? What would your parents have against that?!"

The woman put two fingers to her temple and sighed "Haruka, make your friend leave. You should be studying to improve your grades in your spare time, not hanging around with friends!"

"There you go again!" Haru's father suddenly interjected "I agree he should be studying, but there are times where you take it too far!"

"Our son's grades make him look like a failure! I never take it too far!" Haru's mother yelled back.

"Yes, his grades are terrible, I do agree with you on that. But he is still a teenage boy! He will mature soon enough!"

"He has had these horrible grades since he started school! And what are you going on about? Him being a teenage boy? You were a teenage boy! You should understand him better than me! So why don't you actually come home and see him for once?!"

"I have work! I have no choice!"

"As do I! But I still make sure to come home before two o'clock in the fucking morning to be with him at home!"

"You only get home early to make sure he's studying!"

"At least I actually talk to him! I have never heard you say a word to him unless I'm around you insolent pig! You are worse than me!"

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Haru yelled, making both his parents and Rin stare at him with wide eyes.

Haruka took a deep breath before speaking once more "You're both as bad as each other! You both completely ignore me and act like I'm not even there! You didn't even give me a choice if I wanted to come with you to Tokyo or not! You make me feel worthless, like I'm a complete and total failure!"

"Now Haruka..." his father started, but was cut off by said teen

"And you, Father!" he spat "That's probably the first time you have ever said my name! I have never heard you speak to me unless mother starts the conversation! You may say it's because you were never there since you have a full time job, but there were times we would be sitting at the kitchen table together and you wouldn't say a word to me! You wouldn't ask me how school was going, if I felt okay or if I needed help with anything!"

"Nanase Haruka!" his mother now butted in "Don't you speak to your father like that!"

"Well then how about you actually have a normal conversation with me for once!" Haruka yelled, making the room go silent "I am sick of talking about my grades! I am sick of being told to study every day! You are never concerned about me! You are only concerned about my grades!"

The woman balled her hands into fists and said through clenched teeth "That's because it's the only thing that matters in your life at the moment!"

"Well why don't you ask if I need help? Why don't you come up to me in my room and help me with my studying? You just make me feel like I'm a failure!"

"That's because your grades make you a failure, Haruka!" the woman yelled back, now even madder than before.

"If you feel that way then why did you have me!" Haruka snapped, not even fazed about what his mother had said "If you think that all there is to life is school and work then why did you have a child? Why did you bring me into this world if you are so busy with your own life?!"

"BECAUSE YOU WERE AN _ACCIDENT!_" the woman screamed, making everyone go silent.

Haruka's eyes widened as he felt a tight pain in his chest. He felt his legs begin to shake and his eyes begin to water. Now he knew...now he knew he wasn't even meant to exist, he was just an unwanted burden that his parents would forever be stuck with.

Tears fell down Haru's face and he stared at his parents, feeling like he was frozen. He stayed like this for a few minutes before his strength returned and he ran out the door, not wanting to see his mother or father's face.

"Haru!" Rin reached out, trying to grab the teen, but was a second too late as the teen had slipped away and was already gone. He turned to the two standing in the kitchen and gave them a disgusted look "What is wrong with you people?!"

"Don't talk to your seniors like that!" the man frowned, giving Rin a cold stare.

"No, I will talk like that to you! Because I may be younger than you, I may know less about the world than you, but at least I know how to treat the people I love!"

Once he finished his sentence, Rin was gone, and Haruka's father's brow creased "People...he loves?"

He turned to his wife and his eyes widened. Tears were streaming down her face and her hands were covering them.

"Oh my god...what did I just say...? He'll...now he'll always hate me...he'll never forgive me..." she sobbed, flinching as she felt arms wrap around her.

"Come on," her husband spoke "we should chase after him and apologise to him. He is our son."

The woman nodded and both of them ran out the door, hoping they could find Haruka before it was too late.

Meanwhile, Haruka was running along the sidewalk. He had already ran down the stairs and continued running, he could hear Rin shouting behind him, but just ignored it. He didn't know where he was running to, he didn't know where he was going, but that didn't matter. Now that he knew he was unwanted, nothing mattered, his life was worthless.

He continued to run, tears streaming from his eyes. Rin's voice got louder and more desperate, but he didn't care. No one wanted him, no one needed him, no one cared about him.

Haruka turned onto the road so he could get to the other side and disappear around the corner, but he froze in his tracks when seeing a blinding light in the corner of his eye. A loud honking was heard and he turned to see a large car heading straight for him.

It felt like everything was happening in slow motion as Haruka watched the car. He closed his eyes and prepared for it to hit him, he prepared for the pain he was about to feel and prepared for his life to end. He may have been over exaggerating everything, but he didn't care. He was just told he wasn't meant to be, that he wasn't wanted by his parents, his own parents, so what was he meant to do? What was the point anymore...?

He tensed up and squeezed his eyes shut as the car got closer, but gasped as he felt someone wrap their arms around him and make them both roll out of the way. The car just honked at them and continued driving, not bothering to stop and check if they were okay.

The raven haired teen opened his eyes and looked up at his saviour to see it was Rin who had jumped forward and saved him.

"R-Rin..." Haruka stuttered "You...you could have been killed..."

"That doesn't matter!" the redhead retorted "You were just going to let that car hit you?! You think no one would miss you just because of what your parents said?!" Haruka was about to answer but was cut off "Don't be so stupid! Don't be so fucking _stupid!_ How do you think your friends would feel? How do you think Nagisa and Rei would feel? How do you think Makoto would feel? How do you think_ I_ would feel?! I can't stand the thought of losing you! Not again! Never again do I want to lose you! So don't ever, ever do something as stupid and selfish as that! You idiot!"

Haruka thought it should have sounded offending to be called stupid and selfish, but it wasn't. At that moment, at that exact point in time, that was probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to him. Rin was right, he was being selfish, he was being stupid. Haruka knew how it felt to have lost Rin all those years ago, and all his friends would feel the exact same way if he was gone, but it would be worse, because he would have never been coming back.

Rin's eyes were watering, he was on the verge of tears, but the tears didn't fall. Looking into those shimmering, crimson eyes, Haruka felt as though he really did have something to live for, or to be more precise,_ someone._

Haruka and Rin could both suddenly hear yelling from across the road, making Rin let go of him. Haru's eyes widened as he watched his parents run towards him, tears falling from his mother's eyes.

Once in front of him, both his mother and father fell to their knee's and wrapped him in a tight embrace.

"Haruka, you stupid, stupid boy!" his father scolded "Never do that again! We would have no idea what we would do if we lost you!"

Haruka's eyes widened as he could hear both his parents sobbing "But...I'm unwanted, I'm a burden to both of you..."

"No!" his mother quickly responded, his parents letting him go and staring at him "It's true you were an accident, you're father and I didn't mean to have a child. But you were a nice accident, we were so happy to hear we were going to have a child! Haruka, you are our beautiful boy, and we would never let anything happen to you!"

"We were blind in our work" Haru's father admitted "both your mother and I got too stuck in our work, and we were hearing stories of how people's children were complete failure's and couldn't find a job or get into a university because of their grades. We started worrying about you, but since we were both not prepared to be parents we pushed you too hard, thinking it was the right thing to do. So eventually we thought, if we let you live on your own, you would no longer feel stressed. We both thought you hated us! And as you started trying to get our attention, our work load doubled. That's why we both got a promotion so soon afterwards."

His mother began to sob loudly "W-while we were in Tokyo your father told me that we were putting too much pressure on you, and that we were neglecting you too much! I went off at him because he didn't really know how to act around you, and he never thought he was suited to be a father! We both love you dearly, but we never noticed how much we were hurting you! We had no idea how to act around you! Everything just got so hard when your grandmother died, and we had no idea what we were going to do without her!"

Haruka was silent as he tried to process everything that was being said "But you...you only ever talked to me about studying, you only ever cared about my grades! You always objected when I wanted to do something that didn't involve studying..."

"Haruka..." his father smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder "did we ever tell you to quit that swimming club? That was the one thing we saw you loved the most, we knew just how much you loved swimming. Your mother and I thought, if it relieved of any stress, then it was good for you. Not knowing how to act around you isn't an excuse, I know, but we weren't ready to be parents. We thought we could raise you together, but we panicked too much and overdid it."

The woman nodded "We knew we were overdoing it, and we were going to surprise you by telling you that we have saved up enough money to have a holiday in France, and we were going to be bring you with us."

"...why France?" Haruka asked, trying to understand what was being said.

"Because France is said to have the most beautiful swimming pool in the world, and we were going to take you there as an apology for being such bad parents. Even though we know nothing could ever make up for how horrible we've been" Haru's father answered, still smiling warmly.

"Ah..." Haruka sobbed, feeling tears stream down his face once more. He squeezed his eyes shut and sobbed, feeling relief, happiness, and joy all wash over him at once. He wanted to say something, but couldn't, and just continued sobbing.

Rin watched the scene with warm eyes, feeling happy for Haruka. All this time there had been a misunderstanding between both parents and child, but now everything seemed it was going to be fine. Rin had never actually seen Haruka so happy that he'd been reduced to tears, and it was an amazing sight to behold.

The redhead stood up, but before he could leave he felt a strong hand grab his shoulder. He turned to see Haru's father giving him an intense stare.

"...you have a lot of confidence in yourself, don't you?" the man asked. Rin didn't answer, instead felt sweat drip from his brow. The man didn't seem to want an answer as he continued "Well, you are a very straightforward young man. I may have taken what you said to us back at the house in the wrong way, but I just want to let you know, I do not object to it and neither would my wife"

Rin's eyebrow rose "Object to...?" he tried to understand what the man was saying, but gears started to turn as he remembered what he said.

_" Because I may be younger than you, I may know less about the world than you, but at least I know how to treat the people I love!"_

_"...I love..."_

Rin's eyes widened as panic began to rise up within him "U-um...I...that kinda just came out..."

"So you feel that way then?" Haruka's father asked, giving Rin a judgmental look.

Rin was going to deny it, but decided there was no point in hiding it anymore. Turning his head to make sure Haru wasn't listening in on the conversation, he sighed and slowly nodded.

The man continued to give him a judgmental stare, but his expression soon changed into one of happiness "Thank you for feeling that way about my son. People may say it's not natural, but if it weren't natural, it wouldn't happen."

Rin's eyes widened "You mean...you see no problem with it?"

"Why would I see a problem with it?" the man asked "There is nothing wrong with it, in my opinion it is completely natural. My wife thinks the same way. Honestly, I am just happy someone feels that way about Haruka."

Rin felt relieved, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. But little did the man know, one other person felt that way about Haru, but he decided not to mention it.

After all the tears were shed and apologies were made, Haruka thanked Rin for saving him, to which Rin just brushed off and smiled at. Even though Rin's heart was pounding at an unhealthy rate at the thought of getting hit by that car.

Nevertheless, the redhead watched as the Nanase family walked home together, but this time, they were a true family.

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**The most beautiful swimming pool in the world is in France and I know that for a fact! (watch Life of Pi pfffft) and like I said this was so sappy, which is good if you like cute and sappy things I guess? But like I said, not sure if it's OOC or not and that's for you to decide. I just reeaaally want to see Haru in a tear jerking situation where he actually cries god dammit! (I am a horrible person I know)**

** Also I believe Haruka's parents would be workaholics since they did move to Tokyo for their job and probably didn't have much time for Haru so yeah, and that whole him being an accident thing...I don't really know. It just made it seem more dramatic and that's what I was aiming for.**

**Also Rin being a good boyfriend and comforting Haru which could totally happen heheheh**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter anyway and hopefully the next one will be out soon.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ah, sorry this is kinda late. But oh my god school is really hitting me now (ugh). But here is this chapter to make up for it! And I am almost positive you will all love it! As always, sorry for any mistakes my dumb brain didn't see.**

******Disclaimer: ************Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

After two weeks, Haru's parents had gone back to Tokyo. They told him the trip to France would be in the first school holidays of the New Year, considering Christmas wasn't too far ahead, only around two months, and they would be busy during the end of the year. His parents apologised for not being able to be there for Christmas, but Haru understood, and he was just happy they acted like a normal family.

The next few days after they left, Haruka seemed happier and more into school than ever before. During his lessons Rin would have to kick him awake only once, and during swimming practice his form got stronger and more beautiful, meaning his time would improve every lap he swam. Rin knew he wouldn't be able to beat Haruka at freestyle at that moment, considering the high the teen seemed to be on. But Rin also knew every time Haruka's time improved, it would never go back down, only up. So he began to doubt if he could beat Haruka in freestyle at all anymore.

But with Haruka's time improving, it just encouraged Rin to train harder, so both of their times continued to improve. But Makoto, on the other hand, felt as though something was off. One week Haruka was as depressed as the brunette had ever seen him, and the next Haruka was as happy as could be. Makoto asked him what was going on, but the teen just replied with "I'm not on bad terms with my parents anymore." Nagisa and Rei were just as confused as he was, but the only person that didn't look confused was Rin. Gou also looked like she knew what was going on, and being Rin's little sister, that did not sit well with Makoto.

Haruka was keeping things from him, things he was only telling Rin, and he felt like he was being pushed away. Makoto knew Haruka was spending more and more time with Rin, and the brunette feared his best friend would find his true feelings very soon.

He had to prevent it, he _needed_ to prevent it! Once Rin found out his own feelings for Haru, it was game on. Of course, this would be tricky to spot. Makoto was an expert at reading Haru's emotions, but not Rin's, so he'd have no idea if Rin finally admitted his feelings to himself or not.

All through swimming practice Makoto watched Rin. He watched the way he behaved and the way he acted around Haruka. To him, everything seemed normal, he couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary. Of course, just as he thought, he couldn't read Rin's emotions. He always smiled, it was so much easier to tell how he was feeling when he wasn't smiling, especially that time he came back from Australia. But now Makoto didn't know if the smile Rin put on was a true smile of happiness, a forced smile trying to hide his sadness, or a smile put on because he was nervous. He would always smile, and when he smiled the most was around Haru, and Makoto just couldn't pick out what smile it was.

Once training was finally over, Gou called it a day and everyone went to get changed. Haruka, however, was still in the pool. Makoto told him he couldn't wait for him because he had to go to a family dinner that night. Rin, as always, went home with Gou and the two Matsuoka's said goodbye. So Haru just began to float around in the blue water with a lazy smile on his face.

Everything in his life seemed to be going fine, especially since his parents were no longer yelling at each other and were now treating him like he was actually their son. They had only left a week ago but called him through the week and talked to him on the phone. Not once did the topic of his grades come up, and Haru felt a warm feeling in his heart. They were having normal conversations, he was no longer ignored, they were finally a true family.

After half an hour of floating around, Haruka decided to get out, as the school gates would close if he didn't leave soon. He walked over to the change rooms and opened the door, only to see two people inside. These people were standing very close to each other, they had their arms wrapped around each other. These people were...kissing?

"H-Haru chan?!" Nagisa stuttered, quickly pushing Rei off him.

"H-Haruka senpai?!" Rei exclaimed, almost tripping as he was pushed away from the blonde.

Haruka looked at the two to see they were wearing their uniforms, then looked up to see both of them blushing. Nagisa blushing was a very rare sight, since the teen almost never got embarrassed.

"W-we were just...!" Nagisa spoke trying to come up with an excuse "D-did you see us?"

Haruka raised an eyebrow. Did he see them? Of course he could see them! What a stupid question! But the raven haired teen guessed they were preferring to the kissing they were doing before. Haruka wasn't shocked or disgusted at what he had saw, but was more...confused. He had to wonder why they were kissing, was it another one of Nagisa's ways to show his affection?...no that couldn't be right, the blonde had never done that to Haru before. So why Rei? What made Rei so special?

"H-Haruka senpai!" Rei stuttered once more "I-I am sorry for what you just witnessed! We thought everyone had left!" the teen bowed deeply in apology, while Haruka just continued to look at them with a confused expression.

Not being able to wrap his head around it, Haruka asked "Why were you two kissing?"

Nagisa's face reddened and he put a hand on the back of his neck "W-well our families are home and we wouldn't have any-"

"No, I don't mean _why here_, I mean _why are you kissing him_?" Haruka interrupted, still confused at the situation.

Nagisa's eyes widened slightly as he turned to Haruka, wondering what the teen meant by that. Surely he knew what kissing someone meant...didn't he?

"Rei" Nagisa turned to said teen "you go back home, I'm going to Haru chan's house to explain the situation"

Rei gave Nagisa a worried look, but nodded. He apologised to the confused Haru once more and quickly left before it could get any more awkward. To have his senpai see him doing something like that was just embarrassing and...definitely not beautiful...

Once Haruka had finished changing, he walked back home with Nagisa. Through the whole walk the blonde was oddly quiet, making it feel awkward. Nagisa was never quiet, so Haruka had to wonder what the kiss meant. Surely it wasn't a very big deal...right? Or maybe it was something bad?

When the two finally reached the Nanase household, Haruka let Nagisa in and made cocoa for the both of them. He placed the mug in front of the blonde and sat down at the small living room table.

"Mmm..." Nagisa hummed, taking a sip of the cocoa "this always tastes so amazing, Haru chan"

Haruka said nothing and drank his own cocoa, then turned to Nagisa and bluntly asked "Why were you kissing Rei?"

Nagisa almost spat out his drink at the sudden question, but quickly swallowed it down and coughed a little. The raven haired teen just raised an eyebrow at his friend as he regained his composure.

"Well..." Nagisa started, his cheeks heating up "it's because...I love him..."

"...love?" Haruka repeated, his head tilting slightly

Nagisa's eyes widened at the teen "Haru chan...have you never been in love?"

Haruka thought about this for a second before answering with "I love water and mackerel"

"No, no, no!" Nagisa shook his head head and waved his hands around "Not that kind of love!"

"...there are other kinds?" Haruka responded, sounding generally surprised

"Yes! I had no idea you were this oblivious Haru chan!" the blonde exclaimed, his eyebrows in a slight furrow "haven't you seen romantic movies or anything?! Or do you just fall asleep while watching them?"

Haruka ignored the question and thought about this for a second before asking "...what are the other kinds of love?"

"W-well..." Nagisa stuttered, now trying to think of a way to explain it "...the love you are talking about is...the like love! The love I'm talking about is the romantic love!...you get what I'm saying?" Haruka shook his head and Nagisa sighed "Okay well...have you at least been taught about...the birds and the bees?"

"What...sex?" Haruka stated without hesitation, making Nagisa blush slightly

"Y-yes! Sex!" Haruka nodded and Nagisa continued, happy he didn't have to explain that to him "Uh, well...would you have sex with water and mackerel?" Haruka made a disgusted face and quickly shook his head, making Nagisa smile "Well you would have sex with someone you love!"

Haruka's eyes narrowed as he tried to understand this "So you've had sex with Rei?"

Nagisa's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates "N-n-n-_NO!_" he denied, waving his hands around once again "O-okay never mind! That was a bad example! Love is not about sex, so why did I even mention that?! Ummmm..."

The blonde's face went tomato red as he tried to cool off from what Haruka said before, and the raven haired teen just looked at him with a raised eyebrow. What was this other love Nagisa was talking about? Was it the love that that girl felt for Rin?

As he was caught in his thoughts, Nagisa spoke once more "Okay, okay! I think I got it now!...have you ever felt this warm, gooey feeling in your chest from being around someone?" Haruka thought about this, then slowly nodded "And has your heart ever felt like it was beating a million miles per hour?"

Haruka thought back to the time when he was cleaning the pool with Rin, and when the redhead picked him up trying to prove he was stronger than Haru. Haruka remembered how his heart began beating rapidly when Rin touched him, and nodded at Nagisa's question.

Nagisa continued as he realised he was getting somewhere "And have you ever felt so happy around someone, that you felt you wanted to be around them more? Have you ever met someone that just makes you feel more confident and makes you feel like your life is the best it could possibly be?"

Haruka suddenly had all these images of Rin in his head, remembering the times Rin had made him feel all those things. He slowly nodded and Nagisa was almost surprised, wondering who this person was that made Haru feel like that. Nevertheless, Nagisa continued on with his explanation.

"Well...when you kiss that person, you feel fireworks going off inside your head. You feel so warm that you begin to boil, and your heart feels as if it's about to pop out of your chest!...I think that's love"

Haruka raised his eyebrows, was that even healthy? Still, Haruka had to wonder if that was true, and he began to wonder what it would be like if he kissed Rin. Surely those things wouldn't happen, it was just a kiss. It was just his mouth pressing against someone else's mouth, how could it make all of those things Nagisa had mentioned happen?

Nagisa saw Haru thinking about this, and decided he should leave him alone to think. So the blonde stood up and said "I'm going to go home now, oh and please don't tell anyone about me and Rei! We were kind of planning to tell you all on Christmas..."

Haruka nodded in understanding and Nagisa said goodbye, leaving the teen to try and understand what he had just said. If anything, Haruka now found love even more confusing.

...

The next night, Rin came over to tutor Haruka. Except Haruka wasn't listening to a word Rin was saying.

For the whole day Haruka had been thinking about what Nagisa had said, and he would space out as he though about it. The more he thought about it the more stupid it sounded, and the more he thought there's no way it could happen. Even if it could, there's no way fireworks going off inside your head was healthy for the body, it just sounded strange. It made him wonder if love was even a good thing.

So as Rin was talking about the English sentence structure, Haruka stared at him. He had his arms crossed on the table and his head on them, making him look up at the redhead sitting next to him.

All the things Nagisa had said, Rin had made him feel. So apparently if he kissed Rin, fireworks would go off. His body would also start to boil and his heart would feel as if it were going to pop out of his chest. So then that would be love...at least, it was Nagisa's explanation.

Rin continued to talk about the English structure, too into it to notice if Haruka was paying attention. The raven haired teen sat up, looked at Rin for a moment longer, then asked "Can I kiss you?"

"Sure..." Rin nodded, not even thinking about what the teen had said. His brain began processing what Haruka had asked, and once he realised what the teen had said, his eyes widened and he quickly turned to Haruka "What?!"

"Can I kiss you?" the teen repeated

"Y-yeah I know that's what you said!" Rin stated "But why?!"

"Because I need to check something"

Rin's face went tomato red as he stared into Haruka's sparking, blue eyes. What did he mean he wanted to check something? What did he want to check? His sexuality?! Of course, since Haruka was oblivious to how Rin felt about him, Rin knew Haruka had no idea what he was doing to him.

"W-what are you checking?!" Rin asked

"Just something" for some reason, Haruka thought it would be weird if he said _to see if I love you._

Rin continued to stare into Haruka's eyes, trying to decide what to do. Sighing, he came up with a decision and said "F-fine! But this stays between us! And I am only doing this to help you check whatever you're checking!"

Haruka nodded and he sat on his knees, shuffling closer to Rin. Slowly, he began to lean forward, both him and Rin closing their eyes as they got closer to each other.

Rin felt himself getting nervous, he had no idea what to do. He had kissed a girl in Australia while he was there, but this was different, this was with the person he longed for.

Haruka, on the other hand, felt butterflies in his stomach. He had no idea why they were there, he hadn't even kissed Rin yet, but decided to ignore them as he leaned in, closer and closer.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, his lips touched Rin's. It felt strange, soft and oddly warm, but it almost felt as if they fitted together like a puzzle. Then, it happened.

Fireworks began to go off in Haru's head as he pressed into Rin more. He began to feel warm, and almost boiling when Rin placed his hands against the sides of Haru's head. Then Rin tilted Haru's head back just a tiny bit so he had better access to his lips, making Haru's heart feel as if it were about to pop out of his chest.

Now Haruka knew what Nagisa meant, Haruka knew how love felt. But something Nagisa didn't mention was wanting to get more of...whatever this is.

Rin also began to lose control when Haru wrapped his arms around his neck, and Rin licked the teen's bottom lip to ask access to his mouth. Without thinking, Haruka opened his mouth to feel Rin slip his tongue inside.

Rin pressed his mouth into Haru's even harder, and the two of them began a tongue war, both doing whatever felt natural. Haruka clenched his hands as he wanted to get even more, shifting his position to now be sitting in Rin's lap and raised on his knee's, making Rin tilt his head up and allowing Haru to get even deeper into his mouth.

Haruka had no idea what he was doing, and neither did Rin, but it just felt so good.

Haruka let out a small moan as Rin wrapped his arms around the teen's waist, and detached his mouth from Rin's to show a string of saliva still connecting them together. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, before Rin began to attack Haruka's neck with kisses and nips.

"A-ah...Rin!" Haru moaned, his whole body shaking with excitement.

"Haru...Haru...!" Rin breathed between kisses, then moved up to the teen's ear to nibble on it.

Haruka's grip on the redhead tightened as he pressed his whole body into the teen, getting a tingly feeling in his gut as teeth pressed down on a newly found sensitive area. Hands suddenly moved under Haruka's shirt and up and around his chest, then lightly glided over his nipples.

"Ah!" Haru gasped, his eyes widening "N-not there! Rin~!" he moaned Rin's name in a long and seductive manner, making said teen shiver.

"Y-you've...never sounded like this before" Rin swallowed hard, whispering into the teen's ear. He then moved back around to Haru's face and kissed him again, this time Haruka put his fingers into Rin's hair and gripped it tightly.

Nagisa didn't tell him this! He didn't tell Haru it would feel so good! He felt as though he should stop, but he couldn't...he couldn't...he just _couldn't!_

"Rin~!" Haruka moaned again, now beginning to move his lower body against him. What was wrong with him? He wasn't himself! Is this what love did to you? Did it make you do this? Did it make you change so dramatically in such little time?...no, this was sex...sex..._sex?!_

Haruka quickly pushed Rin off him and fell back to the floor, both of them looking at each other with wide eyes. They knew they went too far, but they didn't know it would turn out like that.

The raven haired teen blushed deeply and quickly pulled his shirt down, finding it too embarrassing to look Rin in the eye. Rin felt the same way and stood up, his face even redder.

"I-I'm...going to go home...f-finish that sheet!" without Haru's response, Rin was gone, and Haru fell to the floor with wide eyes.

He curled himself into a ball and, even though it was wrong, he still craved for the teen to touch him. He still wanted more of Rin, and he knew...he knew it was wrong to think that!

"So this is love..." Haruka mumbled, his face still red "...love is the worst"

...

As Rin ran home, he panicked. He had just kissed Haruka, Nanase Haruka, the person he loved! He should be happy, but it just happened too fast! He probably even left a hickey on Haruka's neck, which Makoto is sure to see. Now Haru's going to start avoiding him, Makoto's going to kill him, and to top it all off, his pant's are suddenly too tight!

Rin groaned in frustration and mumbled in English "Fuck, shit, fuck! I am in the deepest shit I have ever been in!"

* * *

**Yeah I really made Haru incredibly stupid when it comes to love, but that's just how I see him. Also Reigisa is the most canon ship in the series and you can't argue with that. I also see Nagisa as someone who is strong and straightforward, but gets really embarrassed when it comes to things like love.**

**Anyways, I will have the next chapter up sometime next week, so just hold on tight!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay I think this is the second longest chapter, and it took ages to edit (ugh). But this chapter is, so far, my favourite chapter because of how it starts. I hope you guys all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

**Disclaimer: ****Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

_My eyes fluttered open as I felt a cool breeze run over my skin, my vision slightly blurry and adjusting to the bright light. Once my eyes had adjusted, I looked around to see everything was white. The only colourful things around me were, what seemed to be, a forest of cherry blossom trees that were fully in bloom, and crystal clear water covering all of the ground that didn't even reach the top of my toes. I raised a confused eyebrow and looked down to notice I was wearing a plain white, collard, buttoned up shirt and long black pants._

_I felt a slight tingling feeling on my right hand, raising it to see a red string tied around the pinkie finger. My eyebrows furrowed as I raised my hand to see the string was incredibly long, and my eyes followed it for as far as I could see. The string went right into the cherry tree forest, and that's where my eyes stopped as I couldn't see past the thick brown trunks._

_A strong wind blew past me and the cherry trees all swayed, their pink petals falling off the branches and dancing in the wind. I looked up with wide, shining eyes, not believing what I saw. The white sky had somehow turned into a beautiful blue colour, with a few perfectly placed fluffy clouds. The cherry blossom petals surrounded me and the sky, thousands of them floating around me. I looked down to see the blue sky reflecting off the water I was standing in, and some of the petals floating around. They made small, delicate ripples when hitting the water, and I found myself breathless._

_I felt as if I was in complete peace, my body and mind as a whole in a state of serenity. I continued to watch the cherry blossoms fall and closed my eyes, taking a deep, relaxing breath. This was my paradise, this was my heaven and my sanctuary. I felt so at ease, I felt as if I could fly off with the wind and float with the cherry blossoms._

_This feeling was gone in an instant however, as the red string tugged on my finger. I frowned and raised my hand once more, staring at this red string. Again, it tugged, and I almost stumbled at the force._

_Did it want me to follow it?_

_I looked into the forest of cherry blossom trees and tried to follow the string with my eyes once more, but again, they were stopped by the amount of trees. I frowned as I stared into the trees, wondering who was there. Then, I tugged at the string myself._

_Someone has shown up in my sanctuary, invaded my paradise, so the least they could do is show themselves!_

_As nothing happened, I tugged at the string once more, feeling that there is definitely someone at the end of it. I didn't want to move from my spot, I was in the dead center of this open area, where I was in peace. I felt as though if I moved, the world around me would crumble and my paradise would be gone. So there was no way I was moving._

_The red string, which was hanging lightly above the watered ground, slowly began to drop. My eyes widened as I realised this person is actually walking towards me, they were actually going to show themselves. I looked back up into the trees and waited, waited for this person to come out._

_The breeze around me had stopped completely, the water no longer rippling as no cherry blossoms were landing on it. I found myself holding my breath because, for some reason, I was scared. Why was I so scared to see who was at the end of this red string? Why was I so scared to see who had managed to make their way into my paradise? Is it because the only things that are in my paradise is what I want? Even though I never wanted someone, another human, into my paradise? If so, how was this person here? How did they manage to get in?_

_Maybe, my mind unconsciously wants them. Maybe _I_ unconsciously want them. Maybe, just maybe, I haven't realised what it is I've wanted this whole time, even though it's always been there at the very back of my mind._

_As I watch intently for this person to appear, I realise that my paradise isn't just made up from my mind, but also from my emotions. Everything in my paradise, I love dearly._

_I love cherry blossom trees, I love the wind against my skin and carrying the petals around me. I love the bright blue sky with perfectly placed fluffy clouds, and I love the crystal clear water, reflecting the sky off its surface. All these things, all of them together, make me feel...free. Everything surrounding me are things I love, and this person that is now stepping out from the trees has slipped into this category unnoticed._

_I squint to get a better look at this person, not being able to see their face but clothes. I see that they are wearing the exact same thing as me. A plain white collared shirt that's buttoned up to show their chest and long black pants._

_This person is slowly getting closer and closer, a long red string, the same red string that's tied to me, following behind them. I continue to stare at them as they slowly come into focus, their features now properly showing. My eyes widen when I finally see them clearly._

_Long, flowing red hair. Bright, shining crimson eyes, and those unmistakable sharp teeth which were only slightly showing to make a small, warm smile._

"Rin"

_As I say his name, the wind comes back to life and the cherry blossoms fly once more. Every step he takes makes soft ripples in the clear water, and it's as if he's walking on air, floating towards me._

_He gets closer and closer, now only a few meters away, and he raises his left hand to show the red string tied around his pinkie finger. I raise my right hand, to show the same string, and he tenderly grabs it once being close enough._

_The cherry blossoms surround us both, as if they were dancing around us. His hand is so warm, so welcoming, and so gently grasped around mine. Almost as if he's afraid he'll break me if he squeezed too hard._

_Yes, he was the one that made me love these cherry blossoms. He was the one that made me love the cool wind against my skin. He was the one that showed me just how blue and beautiful the sky is. He made me love the crystal clear water more than I already did. He changed my view of the world completely._

_Before I met him I didn't have a paradise, I didn't know what a paradise was. He made my paradise._

_He moves even closer to me, the hand that was gripping mine now making its way to my cheek._

"My paradise"_ I say breathlessly, feeling warm fingers touch my skin_

"My heaven"_ I sigh, my eyes clouding over as he takes a step closer to me_

"My sanctuary"_ I whisper, closing my eyes as he slowly leans forwards to place his lips against mine._

_As we got closer, the cool breeze turns into a strong wind. Becoming so strong I can barely stand. My eyes widen as Rin's fingers go ice cold against my cheek, and blue meets horrified crimson._

_Rin takes a step back, and my eyes widen as I notice the cherry blossom trees behind him are completely bare. The wind being so strong it blew all their petals off, now making it a forest of empty, hollow trees. I look up to see the sky has turned pitch black, as has the water. The only thing showing in the water is the glowing ripples around my and Rin's feet, and only my reflection._

_This isn't my paradise, something is here that has ruined it. I look down at the string connecting Rin and I together to see another one tied to the middle of it, except it's black._

_I follow the string, which is shorter than I thought, to see a tall brunette standing at the end of it._

"Makoto?"_ I gasp, not believing it was actually him._

_His green eyes are narrowed and a cold look of anger and hatred fill them, but not towards me. I turn to see where he is looking and find his eyes are pointing directly at Rin._

_The redhead stares at Makoto for a while longer, the wind still howling at a high speed and making our clothes and hair fly around. Rin gives Makoto a fearful look and raises his hand to grab me, only for his hand to hit some invisible barrier._

_My eyes widen and I step forward, placing my hands flat against the barrier to look at Rin with a questioning, pained expression. Rin begins to bang his fists against the barrier, trying to break through it, and the whole time Makoto is just standing there, watching him._

_The barrier slowly begins to fade to a black colour. My eyes widen as I realise, if the barrier turns completely black, I won't be able to see Rin anymore._

_I now bang my fists against the barrier, trying to break through it. I look at Rin to see him yelling something, and read his lips to find he is yelling my name._

"Rin!"_ I yell back, the barrier now almost completely black _"Rin! Rin! Don't leave me! Not again! Rin!"

_Then he's gone, the only thing I can see is black. I look down to see if the red string is still around my pinkie finger, and raise my hand to see it has been cut. Now, at the very end of the string is no longer Rin, but a tied black one. Unlike the one I was tied to with Rin, it wasn't just one long string, it was two tied together._

_I follow the black string to see Makoto, who was still standing there, smirking at me, and my eyes widen in horror. This is not my paradise, this is not my heaven, this is not my sanctuary. I don't feel at peace, I don't feel free, I am no longer surrounded by things I love. But why? Why did Makoto do all this to my paradise? He is my best friend, I may not love him, but he is still an important part of my life. So why? How could he destroy my paradise? Why did he separate me from Rin?_

_I feel something cold around my hand, and look down to see the red string has gone black. The black colour suddenly moves onto my hand, spreading as if it were dripping paint. I watch as it makes its way up my arm, then to my chest, and turn my head to see it crawling over my other arm._

_It is spreading, spreading all over me, and it's cold, oh god it's cold._

_I look down into the water to see it running up my neck, now making its way to my face. It has now become so cold it burns, like my naked body is covered in snow. I drop to my knees as the black colour runs up my mouth, and I hold my hands to my face, trying to tear away my skin._

_I watch as it goes past my nose, past my eyes, almost covering my whole face completely. And as it covers that last bit of skin, I let out a bloodcurdling scream._

...

Blue eyes shoot open as Haruka quickly sits up in bed, his whole body sweating from the traumatic nightmare. He raises his hands and examined them, sighing in relief when seeing they were a normal pale white with no string attached.

He took a few deep breath's to calm himself down, wondering why he had a dream like that.

That dream was about the red string, a string that is said to tie you to the person you love. A string that's meant to tie you to the person that is your destiny. But there were multiple questions in Haru's head about that dream.

Why was Rin tied to the end of the string? Why was Rin in the place he called paradise? Why did Makoto destroy his paradise and separate him from Rin?

None of it made sense and it just left Haru confused, but he had to wonder if he had the weird dream because he kissed Rin. All Haru wanted to do was check if all of what Nagisa had told him was true, except the raven haired teen got much more than expected. Haruka felt as if his world was just the inside of a large clock, and all the gears were spinning around him and confusing him. He needed to find a way out of this clock and back into the real world. So he decided it would be best to call his mum and see if she could help him with it.

He looked at the time to see it said six thirty, and knew she would be up and getting ready by now. Of course, since Haru had school, he should have been getting ready too. But he guessed that could wait, as calling his mother to solve his problems was more important.

Haruka stretched and yawned before turning to his bedside table to pick up his mobile phone, then searched through his contacts and pressed on the one that said _Mother_.

He held it to his ear and let it ring, until she picked up and a light "Hello?" was heard.

"Mother, it's me" Haruka answered, knowing she'd recognise his voice

"Haruka!" she exclaimed "Usually I'm the one calling you!...is something the matter dear?"

Haruka was silent for a moment, realising he hadn't actually planned what to say, but decided to go with "I had the dream about the red string"

A light gasp was heard on the other end of the line "Haruka that's wonderful! But I am busy today and I do need to get ready, so you had to tell me this now?"

"Well...it wasn't exactly a normal dream"

There was silence, and Haruka's mother asked "...how so?"

So Haruka told her about the dream he had. About how it started with Rin walking into his paradise, then Makoto showing up and somehow destroying everything. He left out names, though, as his mother knew who they were.

"Hmm..." she thought "Well, it sounds to me like this person that entered your paradise is someone you want to be there, someone that is part of your paradise"

"Part of my...?" Haruka questioned, confused as to what that meant

"And" his mother continued "the person that forced their way into your paradise is taking away the one who you want to have in your paradise, destroying it all together."

Haruka's eyebrows furrowed "But...how does that work?"

His mother cleared her throat "Well, it sounds to me like you can't have a paradise unless this person is in it, the person who was at the end of the red string. But it also sounds like someone else is trying to split you two apart, and is forcefully tying themselves to your string by cutting it in half and separating you from the person whom you should truly be with."

"Truly be with?" now Haruka was really confused, what did that make Rin? But the bigger question is, what does Makoto have to do in all of it?!

"Oh I am so sorry Haruka, but I really need to get ready now. I got to get to work soon and we can talk about this later, bye!"

"Bye"

The phone hung up and Haruka sighed, rubbing at his temple while trying to fit everything together. Why did Makoto destroy his paradise? Why was Rin part of his paradise? Was he just confused because Rin had kissed him?...well to be fair he had kissed Rin...why did he do that?!

Haruka groaned and shoved his face into the pillow. All he wanted to do was see what love was, to see if what Nagisa had said was true. So he kissed Rin to see if he loved him and...wait...doesn't that mean he loves Rin?

The teens face heated up as his eyes widened and he yelled out "N-no!" then froze as he stared at his pillow. He groaned again and face planted down into the soft material.

"What is wrong with me...?" Haru mumbled, his face continuing to burn.

He didn't like this, he didn't like love...

...

The morning routine carried on as it usually did, which was Makoto coming to pick Haruka up and get him out of the bath. But for some reason Haruka complained about not wanting to go to school, and Makoto noted this strange behaviour. Sure, Haruka wasn't too fond of school, but he never actually wanted to skip it. Makoto knew the only reason Haruka went to school was to see his friends and to swim. Of course his parents would probably kill him if he didn't go anyway.

After Makoto finally managed to drag Haru out of the bath and make him get ready, the two made their way to school at a leisurely pace and got there at a decent time. Rin was already sitting at his desk and looked almost as off Earth as Haru usually did.

"Morning Rin" Makoto smiled, putting on his facade once more.

Rin quickly turned to him, not noticing the brunette had arrived and said a quick greeting. Rin then turned to Haruka and his eyes widened slightly before he looked away.

"Morning..." he muttered

"...morning..." Haruka muttered back, his face heating up as he tried not to think about what had happened between them on that night.

Makoto looked at their strange interaction, staring at Haru and then Rin. Rin wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning either. Just as Makoto thought, it was so easy to read Rin's emotions when he wasn't smiling. So right now, Makoto could tell how the redhead was feeling, and he was clearly feeling embarrassed. Not only that, but Haruka was also feeling embarrassed.

Something happened, something that Makoto had a bad feeling about, and he had to make Rin tell him exactly what happened.

"I need to go to the bathroom, Rin can you come with me?" Makoto smiled warmly, but making his eyes look dark and menacing.

Rin swallowed hard, he knew Makoto would have to find out about this at some point. However, he didn't plan on telling the brunette, and he didn't think Makoto would hurt him as it would look suspicious.

"Sure..." Rin nodded, standing up and walking out the door with Makoto.

Rin had to wonder just what Makoto was going to do, he also had to wonder if Makoto actually already knew what happened. Haruka may have already told him...but that wasn't really in Haruka's character. So no doubt Makoto was going to try and make him talk.

Once reaching the bathroom, Rin slowly closed the door behind them. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as no one but the two of them were there, and he knew exactly what was coming.

In one quick motion Makoto grabbed Rin by the collar and slammed him against the wall, his eyes clouded with rage.

"What did you do to Haruka?"

"I didn't do anything!" Rin retorted. He wasn't lying, Haru was the one that asked to kiss, he just agreed to it. Even so, Makoto would still blame him for it for since Rin touched _his_ Haruka.

"Don't play fucking dumb!" Makoto yelled, slamming Rin's head against the wall "Something is going on between you two, and I know it's because you did something! So tell me what it was!"

Rin snarled, showing his sharp teeth. Honestly he was getting sick of this, of being black mailed and threatened by the person he used to call his_ friend_.

"I don't have to tell you anything!" Rin growled back "Haruka is not yours! He is not mine either! If you want him so badly then stop threatening me and confess to him! Or are you scared he's going to reject you because you know he feels things for me that he has never and will never feel for you?!"

Time felt like it had stopped, and Makoto stood frozen. Rin was breathing heavily from lashing out at the brunette, and he thought that maybe he had even gotten across to him.

That thought was short lived though, as Makoto's eyes flared up with anger and his face contorted into an expression of pure rage. Rin had pushed it too far, and he knew he did, but he couldn't take those words back now. They were the truth, after all, and he guessed that's what angered Makoto the most.

The brunette clenched his hand tight and slowly raised his fist. Rin's eyes widened as he stared at the large fist, surely Makoto wasn't going to punch him...?

"...you piece of shit!" Makoto spat.

Yeah, he was going to punch him.

Rin squeezed his eyes shut as he prepared for impact, and as Makoto swung his fist back, the bathroom door opened.

The person in the doorway froze as he stared at the two teens with wide eyes, both of them looking at him with equally wide eyes.

"Rin senpai and...Makoto senpai...?"

"R-Rei?!" Makoto exclaimed, quickly letting go of the redhead and laughing slightly "Rin and I were just...discussing things...weren't we?"

He turned to said teen and gave him a honey filled smile. Rin quickly nodded and Makoto turned back to Rei.

"I have to get to class now, see you at lunch Rei!" the brunette said, quickly shuffling past Rei and out the door.

The two left in the room were silent, and Rin let out a breath he didn't realise was being held in. He slid down the wall to land on the ground in a sitting position and tilted his head back to be resting on the wall.

Rei had saved him, and thank god he did, otherwise Rin had no doubt that a few of his teeth would have been knocked out.

"...I was right" Rei muttered, making Rin turn to the teen.

"Huh?"

Rei frowned and readjusted his glasses "I asked if someone was threatening you to stay away from Haruka senpai...and looks like I was right"

Rin stared at him for a while, then sighed and closed his eyes "Yeah, you were right, and I have no idea what to do. I bet you're disgusted by this, two guys fighting for another guy...it's disgraceful and hardly romantic..." Rin chuckled slightly, hardly believing the situation himself.

"You think I'm...disgusted?" Rei questioned, raising a judgmental eyebrow "You mean you seriously haven't noticed? I mean, we weren't exactly subtle..."

"What in gods name are you talking about?" Rin furrowed his eyebrows at Rei, confused as to what the blue haired teen was going on about.

"Uh...n-never mind..." Rei blushed, realising he was going off track "Anyhow I am not disgusted by it, at all in fact. But I am kind of shocked at what I've seen...how long has Makoto been threatening you like that?"

"...a few weeks" Rin admitted, almost feeling embarrassed.

Rei frowned at the redhead "You need to tell someone! You have to tell Haruka senpai!"

Rin shook his head "No, I just...I can't tell him..."

"Then I will!" Rei retorted, now feeling angry at how weak his usually strong senpai was.

_"NO!"_ Rin yelled, jumping up and giving Rei wide eyes "You can't tell him! Under no circumstances can you tell him!"

"Look I know you two are very competitive" the glasses wearing teen explained "but this is bullying, I am telling him!"

"It's not that!" Rin shouted back, then went silent as he willed himself to calm down "...it's not that..."

Rei gave the redhead a questioning look "...then what it is?"

Rin sighed as he leaned back against the wall and combed his hair back "...Makoto has been Haruka's friend for almost his whole life, they both go way back. Honestly, I can't even compete with their friendship. But how heart breaking would it be if that one person you've known your whole life was just putting on a mask? How gut wrenching would it be to find out they are actually violent and not at all the way you thought they were? Not only that, but they are hurting the other friends you have around you...wouldn't that just start eating at you?"

"...I think you're thinking too much into this, Rin senpai" Rei stated, giving the redhead a worried look.

"I'm not!" Rin yelled, slamming his fist against the wall "...I'm not, it's just...I've already hurt Haruka, and I still feel so guilty for that. I don't think I could stand hurting him again...even if it's not my fault I just...I don't want to see him hurt..."

Rei stared at Rin in silence, now completely understanding why Rin wasn't telling anyone. It would definitely hurt Haruka if he found out that Makoto had been hurting others, especially Rin, because he thought it would be good for Haruka. If anything, Haruka would blame himself for what was happening, and that was exactly what Rin didn't want.

"...I understand, I won't tell anyone. But you're going to have to get out of this somehow, and if you need to talk to someone about it...just come to me"

"Thanks Rei" Rin smiled, standing up and walking to the door "oh and by the way, Nagisa is far too easy to read, so just make sure you keep your boyfriend in check when he's around you."

"Sure...w-wait what?! But I thought you-" Rei was cut off by the closing door, and Rin snickered to himself while walking down the hall.

Of all the people to find out about this, he was glad it was Rei. It felt a little better to have someone he could talk to about this strange situation.

* * *

**I hope you all enjoyed that! It was definitely fun to write, that's for sure! And my knowledge on the red string isn't exactly 100% accurate, so google it if you want to know more about it. I just think it is a beautiful little legend and more people need to know about it.**

**I will have the next chapter out sometime next week, so just wait till then!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	13. Chapter 13

**I meant to post this on Monday, but I just kept procrastinating and I am so sorry about that. I don't have much to say about this chapter so just read and enjoy! Also, thank you to everyone that has reviewed, favourited and followed so far! It is good to know you are all enjoying this story!**

******Disclaimer: ****Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

* * *

"I'm late" Rin mumbled, running down the school halls "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" He felt as though he was the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, but that's because he was late, and he was _very_ late.

He had missed home room, which meant he didn't get marked off on the role. So this meant, as soon as he got to school, he had to run to the office and stand in a small line so he could be checked off and attend class.

Rin was never late, for the whole time he had been at Iwatobi he has had perfect attendance, but this morning he had slept in. Why had he slept in? Because there were way too many things on his mind for him to sleep. Even when he did fall asleep it wasn't exactly a peaceful one. His mind wasn't switching off like it usually did when he went to bed, and now he was a good half hour late for school.

He ran to his geography class like his life depended on it, and quickly slid the door open to see the teacher and a bunch of students staring at him. One of the students being Haru.

"Ah, Matsuoka, it's not like you to be late" his teacher commented, her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"S-sorry" Rin bowed deeply "I just had some...troubles at home..."

The teacher stared at him for a while before sighing and telling him to sit down. He sat next to Haruka as they were in alphabetical order, since no one else's family name in the class started with M and Haruka's was the only one that had an Na.

_"I forgot he was in this class"_ Rin thought to himself, glancing at the raven haired teen beside him_ "Well I don't have to talk to him, so I guess I'm fine"_

"As you all know," the teacher started "it is almost the end of the school year and your exams are coming up soon. I have taught you everything you need to know and you should now be studying what I have taught you nightly. So, I want you to work with the person next to you and quiz each other"

Rin groaned inwardly as he slumped down into his chair, the world hated him.

Haruka put his hand up and the teacher instantly responded with "No, you can not change partners. You must work with the person next to you" making Haruka put his hand back down.

The students all began to push their desks together, and Rin sighed as he stood up and slid his desk next to Haru's.

The redhead sat down, pulled out his geography book, and began preparing questions before getting Haru's approval to do so. Haru was just drawing some object that Rin couldn't make out.

There was an awkward silence between the two of them as Haru said nothing, and neither did Rin, making both of them feel uncomfortable.

Hesitantly, Rin opened his mouth and said "It's starting to get colder outside..."

The redhead mentally slapped himself. Talking about the weather was the number one thing not to do during an awkward silence, and Haru didn't even bat an eye at the teen.

Nevertheless, Rin still tried to make conversation and muttered "It was always really hot around this time in Australia..."

Haruka stiffened and his pencil stopped.

Rin mentally slapped himself for the second time. His trip to Australia was very clearly a no go zone, what was wrong with him today?

"...it was...was it?" Haruka questioned, gaining Rin's attention.

The redhead smiled as the teen responded, making him feel more confident "Yeah, it would get really cold during the winter, but through spring and autumn it would just be hot. It was always boiling during summer."

"...good swimming conditions" Haru muttered, continuing to draw whatever it was he was drawing.

"Well, yeah" Rin stated "that's why I went there to swim-" he cut himself off as Haruka stiffened once more, seeing a tint of sadness in those ocean blue eyes.

Rin sighed as he turned back to his book and continued to write questions, then silently mumbled "...I did think of you, you know..."

"Huh?" Haruka questioned, his eyes now on the redhead.

"I said I did think of you, while I was in Australia I mean. Honestly, everyday I would look up at the sky and wonder what you were doing. I would wonder if you were swimming, or hanging out with Makoto, or even eating mackerel" Rin smiled to himself, now seeing how stupid it all was when thinking back on it.

"...I was thinking about you too..." Haru mumbled, making crimson orbs widen and stare directly at him. A small blush creeped up Haruka's face as he felt the teen's eyes on him, and tried to go back to concentrating on his drawing.

Rin turned back to his own book and let his thoughts float around in his head, wondering what it meant to have Haru thinking about him while he was in Australia. But maybe he was over thinking things, that didn't mean anything.

The redhead turned back to Haru to see his cheeks tinted a light red, making the corners of his mouth slightly turn upwards. He found it almost funny when seeing Haruka embarrassed, probably because he didn't see it much.

"Haru..." said teen shifted his eyes towards the redhead "...I'm sorry for what happened that night..."

The lead on Haruka's pencil snapped and his face went a bright, tomato red.

"D-don't say that!" the teen almost yelled, making the other students give them a strange look before turning back to their own work.

Haruka let out a small sigh before turning back to Rin "Don't mention that in a place like this! That's not really a good topic...and why are you apologising anyway?"

"Huh?" Rin questioned, titling his head "Because I started-"

"Shhh!" Haru whispered urgently "Y-you don't have to explain! It was my fault!"

Haruka could feel his face burning up again, because it _was_ his fault. If he hadn't asked Rin if he could kiss him then they wouldn't be in this mess. Surely if this was love, then that kiss wouldn't be so embarrassing. After all, Nagisa said he loved Rei and they still act normal around each other after kissing...

Wait, that's it, he just has to ask Nagisa! Surely Nagisa would know what's going on, he was right about the seeing fireworks and your heart beating so fast it feels like it's going to pop out of your chest when kissing, after all.

"...what are you drawing?" Rin asked, looking down at his friend's sketch book. Looking more closely now, he could see it was the outline of a large tree.

"A cherry blossom tree" Haruka answered, still not feeling confident enough to look into the redhead's eyes.

Rin stared at it for a while longer, watching Haru's delicate hands trace the first few flowers. His hands were so pale, so soft, so...fragile. Rin remembered how it felt to be touched by those beautiful hands. Those long, slender fingers kneading through his hair. The feeling of soft, flat palms gently cupping his face. The way those perfectly trimmed nails dug into his skin while he-

"Ah!" Haru cried, his knee bumping the table as he jumped.

Rin realised he had subconsciously moved his hand to the top of Haru's thigh, making him reflexively move it back to sit in his own lap.

Everyone, including the teacher, looked at the two of them. Their red faces almost glowing.

"Is...something the matter, Nanase?"

Haruka looked at the teacher with wide eyes "Just a bug...that surprised me..."

The woman raised a judgemental eyebrow, but dismissed it and told everyone to get back to their work.

Rin didn't dare to look Haru in the eye. Now, because he knew what it felt like to be kissed by the raven haired teen, his self defence was slowly crumbling. He felt as if he looked into those blue, shining orbs, he would lose himself completely.

It was weak, pathetic even, but that's just what Haru did to him. No one in this world, woman or man, could make him feel the way Haru did.

Haruka was also avoiding eye contact, multiple thoughts were bouncing around in his head.

_"What was that?! Why did he touch me? Why am I still burning where his hand was?! This isn't right! It was only just a small touch and yet I feel as if I'm losing control of myself! I need to talk to Nagisa! I need to, I have to! I have to find a way to stop this!"_

His hands shook as he tried to draw. Drawing always calmed him down, but this was probably the first time it had absolutely no affect on his shaky nerves.

There was no way that _this_ could be love.

...

"So what's everyone doing for Christmas~?" Nagisa chirped, his elbows placed on the table with his chin in his hands.

The five teens were in the mall in a small fast food restaurant. Club activities were cancelled for them that day since it was slowly getting colder and colder, so soon they wouldn't be able to swim at all unless it was at Samezuka.

"I'm going to be having lunch with my family, then probably open gifts and just continue on with the day like it was a normal one" Rei answered, nibbling on a packet of french fries.

"I'm going to be spending the morning with Ren and Ran and try to keep them from waking up mum and dad so they can open their presents. Then I'll have lunch with my family as well and just spend the rest of the day playing with my two siblings." Makoto smiled, wiping his hands from the greasy chicken nuggets.

"Ah...I'm just the same as everyone else. Having lunch with my family and probably just spend the rest of the day watching TV with Gou" Rin yawned, scrunching up the wrapper that his burger had been in.

Nagisa smiled "My sisters are all going to be coming home, so we can celebrate together! They always come over on Christmas!"

Rei stared at the blonde as he tried to talk between sips of his strawberry milkshake "Oh, that just reminded me, my brother might be coming home too"

Rin raised a questioning eyebrow "I didn't know you had a brother, Rei"

The blue haired teen shrugged in an uncaring manner "Well, the topic never came up. He is studying at a university in Tokyo at the moment."

Nagisa smiled once more "All right, so we are all having lunch with our families! That just leaves..."

All eyes moved to Haruka as the blonde trailed off, making the raven haired teen look up with questioning eyes.

He stopped drinking his vanilla milkshake as everyone stared "What?"

"What are you doing for Christmas, Haru chan? Didn't you just hear us talking about it?" Nagisa pouted, watching as Haruka looked up in thought.

Thinking about this for a while, the teen eventually answered with "...I'm not doing anything"

"Ehhhhh?!" Nagisa shot up and slammed his hands onto the table, making everyone jump "That won't do, Haru chan! Christmas only comes once a year! You have to be doing something?!"

"No, I'm not doing anything" Haruka said again, shaking his head.

"But Haru chan, this is a special time of year! You can't just not do anything!"

"N-Nagisa" Rei stuttered "People are looking"

"It's decided!" Nagisa announced, completely ignoring Rei "We will all have lunch with our families, and for dinner we will go to Haru chan's house!"

The raven haired teen frowned "Oi, who said I wanted to-"

"I wouldn't mind doing that" Rin interrupted, a bored expression on his face as he looked to the side.

Haruka blushed slightly when hearing the redhead's voice. Why was the thought of Rin coming to his house for dinner on Christmas Day so weird? Surely that wasn't something to get flustered about...right?

"I wouldn't mind it either, actually" Makoto smiled, the picture of innocence.

"Uh...if it's okay with Haruka senpai then..." Rei muttered, making Nagisa beam with joy.

"Then it's settled! We will be having Christmas dinner at Haru chan's! That way he won't be alone for Christmas!"

Everyone nodded in agreement and Haruka sighed, he really didn't want to be making any big meals on Christmas Day, but he knew they would all show up. Although the thought of all his friends being with him on Christmas did make him feel happy.

Once the five finished eating they decided to walk around the mall, wondering if they should see a movie or just go home.

Haruka stared at Nagisa as they walked, remembering that he wanted to talk to the blonde. Even though they were all together and it wasn't the best time, Haru knew he had to talk to him as soon as possible. Right how Haru's world was just never ending confusion, and he needed to know what was going on.

The raven haired teen saw his chance as Makoto, Rei and Rin started talking while Nagisa went silent, so he tapped the boy on the shoulder.

"Eh? What is it, Haru chan?" the blonde questioned, his eyes wide.

"I...need to talk to you about..stuff" Haruka answered, hoping Nagisa would catch on.

The boy stared at Haruka for a moment, before his eyes had sparked with realisation and he muttered "Oh..."

"What are you two doing? You're dropping behind" Rin stated, staring at the two.

"U-uh, Haru chan just wanted to go to this shop with me! Except it's on the other side of the mall, so we will go there and meet up with you guys somewhere" Nagisa lied, a bead of sweat dripping from his brow.

"I'll go with-" Rei started, but was cut off by the blonde

"No, no! Haru chan and I want to go by ourselves if that's okay!" he smiled, winking at the blue haired teen.

Rei's eyes widened as he understood what was going on, it wasn't exactly a good idea to leave Rin alone with Makoto anyway. He almost face palmed himself for that one.

"Okay then, go ahead. We will meet at the movie cinemas in thirty or forty minutes and decide if we all want to see a movie or not."

Nagisa smiled and nodded then walked off with Haruka, looking behind them to make sure no one was following.

Deciding they were far enough, the blonde asked "So, what did you want to talk about?"

Haruka's face reddened slightly "Well...you know how you told me that when you kiss the person you love, fireworks happen and stuff?" Nagisa nodded and Haruka continued "I just wanted to know...are you absolutely sure that is love?"

The blonde raised a questioning eyebrow "I'm pretty sure it is...why?"

"B-because what if you start trying to avoid that person? Or that person starts avoiding you? Or if it just feels awkward to be near them..."

Magenta orbs widened as Nagisa stared at the raven haired teen "Haru chan, have you...?"

"Hm?" Haruka gave Nagisa a confused look, making the blonde force an awkward smile

"N-nothing! It's nothing! I was just thinking out loud...but I'm not really too good with these things either Haru chan. If you want a love expert you should probably go to Rin cha-"

"Not Rin!" Haruka instantly responded, making the blonde almost stumble back.

"Jeez, I know you two are competitive, but I didn't know you were _that_ competitive" Nagisa half heartedly chuckled, still in small shock at hearing his usually quiet friend yell.

"Y-yeah, competitive..." Haru mumbled "But I really need your help with this, Nagisa, even if you just guessed it would be fine."

"You seem to be pretty desperate to be asking me this" Nagisa joked, even though it was true "Well, let's see...I was never really embarrassed when I was around Rei, but Rei always looked embarrassed when he was around me...I think that just means you really like the person."

Haruka's brow scrunched in confusion "Why do you think that?"

"Because...when you're embarrassed your heart is thumping really fast, right? Well maybe the reason you're avoiding this person is because, every time you see them, your heart keeps thumping. And if your heart thumps when you see that person, that must mean you really like them!"

Haruka's brow scrunched up even more as he tried to understand this. Like Nagisa said, it was just a guess, but it seemed...logical? Yeah, okay, no it didn't, but none of this seemed logical to Haruka. How could someone make your heart thump so fast anyway? The longer he thought about the more unhealthy it seemed. If someone made your heart thump that much then you should stay away from them...but then...why do you keep thinking of that person?

For the last few days the only person on Haruka's mind had been Rin, and no matter how much he tried to avoid the thought, the redhead just kept coming back. It was like he was forcing his way into Haruka's mind, and no matter how many locks Haru put up, Rin had the key to all of them.

"Haru chan..." said teen turned to the blonde to see his wide, questioning eyes "do you have someone...that makes you feel that way?"

"...no, why?" Haruka lied, feeling a tad but guilty for lying to the smaller teen.

"It's because you never seem to be interested in this stuff, like, love and all that. So I was thinking it was because you were confused at seeing me and Rei kissing, or it was because you've met someone that has really made an impact on you." Haruka was about to question the blonde until he continued "I just thought, if you've met someone that makes you feel all these things...then you must really, really like them without even knowing it."

Haruka's eyes shot open as he stared at the blonde, not believing what he had heard. Liking someone without knowing it? As in, _like_ like? Can you even do that? Surely not. Surely he would know if he liked someone in that way, surely he would...surely...

...but it seemed completely possible.

Ever since Haruka had met Rin, all he could remember was his stubbornness and his annoying ways. All he could remember was the way the redhead talked, the way he swam, the way he complained when not getting his way. The way he would look so cheerful in the mornings while Haru felt so tired. The way he gave Gou that concerned and caring look whenever she had hurt herself or started crying. The way he would blush when everyone was around him and complimenting him for his high grades and fast swimming. The way he put on that goofy smile whenever Haru saw him. The way his nose twitched whenever the dust picked up and was about to sneeze.

...who was Haru kidding? He remembered everything about Rin. Without even knowing it he had observed and watched the redhead from the moment they met. Haruka thought he was doing it out of rivalry and boredom, but now he can see it was much more than that.

Nagisa stopped as he realised the raven haired teen was no longer walking with him, and turned to see Haruka standing still with wide, shining eyes.

"Haru chan?" the blonde questioned, staring at his friend.

Said teen looked up, only now remembering he was still in the mall. Everyone walking around him seemed to be a blur, the only person he could see clearly was Nagisa.

"Nagisa..." Haruka spoke when walking up to the teen "tell the others I didn't want to see a movie and have gone home because I'm feeling sick"

"...sick?" Nagisa questioned, and was about to question him further until the teen broke off into a run down the mall. "H-Haru chan!" he called, but got no reply as he watched his friend disappear, making the blonde tilt his head in confusion.

Haruka knew he shouldn't have abandoned Nagisa like that, but he had to get home. He wasn't feeling sick exactly but just...confused. So very confused. Rin was nowhere near him and yet his heart wouldn't stop thudding, the redhead just wouldn't leave his mind.

Haruka could feel his face flush as he ran, both from his thoughts and exhaustion. He didn't want this to be love, he didn't want to be_ in_ love, in all honesty he was terrified of love. To be able to make you feel so strongly for one single person, to make you see fireworks and heat up and feel as though your heart is going to pop out of your chest is something he didn't want to deal with.

Now he could see why love was called the strongest force on Earth. Now he could see why some people fear falling in love, because he was one of those people.

Yet there he was, falling in love. Falling in love with some stupid, redheaded fool that forced their way into his life without him even noticing. Falling in love with someone that has caused him so much misery and pain, yet so much happiness and joy.

This was something he had never experienced before, something he hadn't acknowledged until now. Something that he was seemingly and subconsciously afraid of.

This was a new development.

* * *

_**See what I did there?**_

**Okay anyway, all those things Rin said about Australia are true, and I know because I live there. It never snows here and almost never gets cold here ugh. This was kind of a mushy chapter and more love expert Nagisa! Yay! I really love the relationship between Nagisa and Haru, it is really cute.**

**I am sad to say that chapters might not be coming out weekly from now on, since this is the last chapter that was prewritten. Not to mention all the tests that are coming up at school (I have finished my science one though yay). But I am halfway through the next chapter, so hopefully it will be done at a reasonable time.**

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Oh my god I finished it! I was getting packed with assignments and tests that I thought I wouldn't be able to finish this for another three weeks or something but I did it! And I am so happy! So sorry for making you all wait but here you go! Just read and enjoy!**

**********Disclaimer: ****Free! and it's characters do not belong to me and belong to the respected owners. I only own/made this story.**

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"Nanase! Have you brought this out to table twenty four yet?!" the cook yelled over the frying pan as Haruka walked into the kitchen.

"I'm just doing that now" he replied, grabbing the plate and walking back out into the small restaurant.

It was a Sunday, and he had been called into work. He worked as a waiter in a seafood restaurant near the beach that wasn't too far from his house. Usually he didn't work on a Sunday, but someone called in sick so he had to take their place.

He put the food in front of the customer and put on a fake smile as they thanked him, having to smile so much was probably the worst part of his job, considering he had to do it so much.

As he was about to walk back to the kitchen the manager stopped him. She was around her thirties and had short, light brown hair.

"Are you sure this is okay for you Nanase? It is exam season after all" she asked unsurely.

Haruka shook his head "It's fine, I am being tutored anyway, so I study all through the week"

The manager nodded and smiled "Good, good. I don't want to be in the way of your school life, so if you can't work at any time just tell me"

Haruka nodded, thanked her and walked back towards the kitchen. Although it was true he was being tutored, he hadn't actually had a tutoring lesson for a week. That's only because Rin was his tutor though. So since Haru didn't ask, Rin didn't tutor. But what was he supposed to do? Now whenever he was around the redhead, Haruka felt too nervous to do anything. Especially since he found out he is actually in love with Rin, well...he thinks anyway. Being alone in a house and sitting close to each other was the last thing Haruka needed.

One of the other waiters, who worked with Haru, came out of the kitchen and almost walked into the raven haired teen. He had messy blonde hair and was either twenty or twenty one, Haruka didn't really pay attention to any if his co workers.

"Oh, Nanase! Sorry about that! I got this one so how about you serve the customers at table fourteen?"

The teen sighed and nodded, it seemed to be busy for a Sunday...or maybe it was always this busy since Haruka has never worked on a Sunday.

He started walking up to table fourteen to see two people sitting together, two people with red hair, two people...that looked incredibly familiar...

No, oh no, he did not want to deal with this, he didn't have the strength to deal with this.

Haruka stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the two Matsuoka siblings, wondering what he should do. Business wise, he should walk up to the two and ask for their order. Personally, he wanted to run into the kitchen and stay there until they both left.

"Gou, stay away from Mikoshiba!" the redheaded teen growled, glaring at his younger sister

Gou rolled her eyes "But he's the one approaching me! Whenever he sees me he comes up to me, so we just hang out for a while. I can't do anything about that!"

Rin scowled "Well you can tell him to piss off!"

"Jeez" Gou sighed, turning away from her brother "you are so...hm? Haruka senpai?"

Rin instantly turned when hearing that name and crimson eyes widened when meeting with blue. Haruka completely stiffened, hearing sirens going off in his head. He should have run when he had the chance, now he had no choice but to socialise with the two.

Rin, on the other hand, couldn't stop staring at the teen. He was wearing the stereotypical waiter outfit with the buttoned up white top, a black tie, and long black pants with an apron tied around his waist.

In all honesty, he looked stunning.

"H-Haru, you work here? I thought Iwatobi didn't allow part time jobs" Rin smiled nervously, trying not to stare at the raven haired teen.

"We're not but…my parents asked the school if I could, considering they are away in Tokyo and I need to make some money for myself…" Haruka stared at the ground, not wanting to look into the redhead's eyes.

Gou looked at their exchange with a raised eyebrow, something felt off. Usually, Rin would be smiling and laughing and jumping all over Haru, but right now it just seemed…awkward. Was it because of what happened with Haru's parents? Was it that time when he came crying to Rin?...no, that couldn't be it. They were acting normal around each other after that, so it must have been a bit later.

Gou tried to think of what events could have led up to this sudden change in behaviour, but she couldn't think of anything. There was nothing out of the ordinary…except for Rin tutoring Haru. She remembered her brother came back one night looking very stirred up, and when she tried to talk to him he just brushed her off and went straight to his room.

Now _that _wasn't normal behaviour…but what happened to cause that behaviour? Gou knew she shouldn't involve herself in this, but considering this involved her big brother, how could she not be interested in it?

"A-anyway," Haruka stuttered, taking out his notepad and pen "what would you like?"

As both teens told him their order, Haruka wrote it down with shaky hands. There was no way the cook was going to be able to read this, why was he shaking so much anyway? So now it wasn't just when he was alone with Rin, but also when he saw Rin? So it didn't matter if he was a meter away or a mile away, if he saw the redhead then his awkward emotion switch would click? In fact, he didn't even need to see the redhead, just thinking about Rin triggered that switch.

"Uh, o-okay I got it. Your food will be out shortly" Haruka didn't bother faking a smile, and quickly turned and shuffled off.

Rin wanted to say something, but the teen was gone before he could. Gou took this opportunity to question her brother.

"So what happened between you and Haruka?" she asked, her eyes wide and curious.

Rin frowned at her "What are you talking about? Nothing happened"

"_Shit__, she notices the smallest of things" _Rin thought, cursing under his breath for having such a nosy little sister.

Gou's eyes narrowed "You can't fool me brother, I can tell there's something going on"

Rin stared back at her, feeling his self-defence crumbling under her glare. He knew he couldn't hide anything from his little sister, and he knew she would always notice when something was wrong with him. God dammit women were scary.

"Fine! Something did happen, but I'm not telling you what!" Rin admitted, crossing his arms and scowling.

"Why not?" she whined, her mouth in a slight pout.

"Because it doesn't concern you! And it's personal too! I don't think Haruka would want you to know…" Rin trailed off, not planning to tell his sister anything.

Gou sat back, giving her brother a questioning glare. Something personal…how personal could it be? Did Rin walk in on Haruka having a bath or something?...no, that wouldn't make them act the way they were, as Makoto had told her that Haru always wore his swim suit when he bathed…she forgot how that kind of topic came up though.

A few minutes later Haruka came back with their food, and he said a quick "Enjoy" before turning to leave. He froze, however, when a certain redhead grabbed his arm.

"When are you finishing?" Rin asked, making Haru turn to the teen.

"Excuse me?"

"When are you finishing?" Rin repeated, but a little slower "I…I'd like to hang out with you after this"

Haruka's cheeks reddened as he quickly turned away, his blue orbs wide and shining. He blushed so easily now, it was annoying. He never used to be like this! Love was seriously a scary force.

"I…I finish in an hour" Haruka mumbled, trying not to look at the redhead

"I'll be waiting outside for you then" Rin smiled, letting his friend go.

Haruka just nodded and Rin watched as he almost ran off, the redhead smiling as he thought of how embarrassed Haru was. He knew the teen was blushing because Haru's ear were a bright red, which actually looked really adorable.

"What's with that look?" Gou questioned, staring at her brother

Rin snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Gou with a raised eyebrow "Hm?"

"That look!" Gou repeated "You look like some love struck fool"

"O-oi!" Rin exclaimed, slightly offended.

Gou continued to stare at her older brother, looking into his eyes to see if there was anything there that could give him away. She had one thought in mind, but surely not. Surely it couldn't be what she was thinking.

This thought had actually been on her mind since she was little, when Rin had just made friends with Haruka. He just continuously talked about this boy who she heard was very fast, incredibly talented, and amazing. So one day, she couldn't help but ask;

_ "Do you love Nanase san?"_

Rin's eyes went wider than she had ever seen them go, and it was followed with a very quick "No way! He's a guy!" to which Gou just giggled at and continued to tease him about.

She knew back then that her brother definitely did not feel that way for Haruka, since every time she'd tease him about it he'd continue to deny it. But now that thought didn't seem so impossible. Now that thought seemed completely possible. She always knew the two of them shared a special bond, but this bond they shared could've been even stronger and much more special than she thought.

Gou remembered what Miss Amakata said when seeing pictures of Rin and Haruka as children, which was _"Connected by the red string of fate"_ and Gou asked if that was how it worked for two boys. Now Gou had to wonder if that's how strong their bond really was, that maybe the two of them really were connected by the red string.

Of course it's nothing she discouraged, if anything she _encouraged _it. She would always love her brother and support him fully in anything he did, and if what she was thinking was true, then she didn't mind at all. From what she knew, Haruka made Rin happy, and Rin being happy was all she wanted for her brother.

So slowly, she took a deep breath, opened her mouth and asked;

"Do you love Haruka senpai?"

Rin's eyes grew wider than she had ever seen them go, and he instantly responded with "N-no way! He's a guy!"

Gou smiled when seeing the small blush on her brother's cheeks, the _exact _same reaction from when they were kids.

Rin frowned at his little sister "You're just teasing with me, aren't you Gou?"

Gou thought about how she should answer, but eventually just gave Rin a warm smile and said "Yep, just teasing!"

…

Rin sat on a bench outside the restaurant, waiting for Haruka to come out. Gou had already left, as she said they probably didn't want her around anyway. Judging from what she had asked inside the restaurant, no doubt she had figured it out.

He wondered if she thought it was weird for her big brother to feel that way for another guy, but he guessed she couldn't really care less. She never judged or criticised him in any way, and he never did that to her either. So he thought it must have not mattered to her how he felt towards someone, no matter who they were.

Why was he thinking these things anyway? He didn't know if she actually managed to figure it out or not!...but was it really that obvious? She said he looked like some love struck fool, which could only mean it was obvious. Sometimes Rin wouldn't even notice when he, himself, was staring at Haru. If he did that too much, then Makoto might pick up on it. That is the last thing he wanted.

As he thought about this, Haruka walked out the restaurant and froze when seeing the redhead. His blue orbs were wide as they stared at him. Rin couldn't help but frown when seeing this reaction.

Did Haru not think he would wait for him? Surely the teen had more faith in him than that.

"Hi" Rin greeted, giving Haruka a warm smile.

"H-hi" Haru greeted back, trying not to look into Rin's eyes "…why did you wait for me?"

Rin sighed and stood up off the bench "I thought I'd walk you home, isn't that what friends do?"

"Uh, I guess so" Haru said unsurely, still trying to avoid Rin's gaze.

Rin's eyebrows furrowed as he watched Haru look at anywhere but him, it was obvious how the teen felt about all this. Of course, Rin found it awkward too, and he knew he needed to fix this.

"Alright, fine" Rin confessed, now walking up to Haru "The real reason I was waiting for you is because I wanted to talk to you about what happened that night, because you and I both know we need to straighten things out about that"

Haruka visibly stiffened when hearing those words. He knew this would happen, he knew this was the real reason Rin waited for him, but he still wanted to avoid it. How was Haruka meant to answer if Rin asked why he had wanted to kiss him? What could he possibly say?

Haruka didn't even want to think about it, he just wanted to avoid it. He knew he couldn't avoid it forever but...well, he could still try.

"We should get going, the sun's going down after all" Haruka stated, turning and walking off.

Rin frowned when watching his friend walk away, but sighed and followed Haru anyway. He knew this was the only chance for him to confront Haruka, as it was one of the rare times when Makoto wasn't around. This was probably going to be his only opportunity in weeks, maybe even months, so he took a deep breath and decided to take action.

"Hey Haru, wait up!" Rin yelled out, slowly jogging up to said teen "You seem to be in a rush to get home, is there a reason for that?"

"No reason," Haruka replied "just going to get dark soon"

Rin noticed the raven haired boy still wasn't looking at him, he wasn't even sparing a glance at the redhead, just solidly looking ahead.

Rin had to get the conversation moving, he had to make it flow in the direction he wanted. So to do that, he needed to slowly bring in the topic at hand.

"Are you rushing home because…you want to get away from me?" Rin questioned, watching Haruka's eyes widen.

"N-no! I just…don't want to walk home in the dark" Haru confirmed, still fixed on the horizon.

"You know," Rin started, frowning at the teen "it's rude to not look at someone when you're talking to them"

"I don't have to be polite to you!" Haruka snapped, feeling his nerves start shaking

"Why not? That's so cold of you" Rin sulked "Well you could at least acknowledge my existence with just a small glance"

"I have no reason to do that"

"But it makes me think you're ignoring me"

"I'm not ignoring you!"

"Well, avoiding me then"

Haruka's eyes widened and he turned to the redhead "I-I'm not avoiding you!"

Ocean blue suddenly met crimson red, making Haru blush slightly and turn back ahead. Rin's eyes narrowed as he witnessed this reaction.

So Haruka _was _avoiding him.

When they were younger, Rin used to think Haru was exceptionally good at hiding his emotions. But, in reality, the teen just had no real emotion to show. Haru always used to look irritated and annoyed when Rin was around him, and that's because that was exactly how Haru was feeling.

When Rin realised this, he felt a little disheartened. What made Rin realise this was when he came back from Australia. Once Haruka saw him from across the railway tracks, he looked happy, and that's because it was exactly how the boy was feeling. Unfortunately, Rin didn't have the best mindset back then, so he told himself it was a lie. Although now he knows better.

The reason Haruka always looked so bored and uninterested is because that was exactly how he was feeling. So whenever Haru was having one of those rare moments where he felt happy, sad, or angry, it was very clearly shown.

Rin used to think Haru was someone that could easily hide emotion, when really, he was horrible at it.

The redhead thought carefully about what to say next, as this was a delicate situation, and sighed before saying "Haru, I understand why you're avoiding me"

"I'm not!" Haruka instantly snapped back.

He didn't want to talk about this, he didn't want Rin to start asking questions. He was confused himself, more scared than confused actually. He kept telling himself he didn't love Rin, but at the same time he told himself he was lying. Did he love Rin? Did he not love Rin? He didn't know, how could he know? He has never felt like this before in his life! The conversation had to stop heading where it was, and he had to either turn it around or stop it completely.

"U-um, you haven't tutored me in a while…"

"That's because you've been avoiding me" Rin stated, knowing Haruka was trying to change the topic.

Haruka clenched his hands and his brow scrunched up "Stop saying that! I swear I'm not avoiding you!"

"Oh?" Rin questioned "You're not? Well then, look me right in the eyes and say it"

"E-eh?" Haruka froze, Rin stopping next to him.

"I said; look into my eyes and say that" Rin repeated, now stepping closer to Haruka "Look at me and tell me you're not avoiding me, then I'll believe you"

Rin was now only inches away from the raven haired teen and Haruka could feel the redhead's gaze digging into him, he felt like he was going to break under it. Haruka wanted to move but he was immobilised, and it felt as though the redhead's stare was getting stronger and stronger.

Hesitantly, Haruka turned his head. Crimson eyes slowly came into view and as soon as they did, Haru quickly looked away again. He couldn't do it, there's no way he could do it, Rin would just see right through him.

"We need to get home, it's going to be dark soon" the raven haired teen stated, about to start walking again.

"Haruka!" Rin thundered, making said teen stop once more.

The redhead walked up to his friend, grabbed his shoulders, and span him to look straight into his eyes. Haruka was taken aback by how aggressive Rin was being, was he really that mad over this? But Haru was much more concerned about how Rin was looking at him, considering their close proximity.

He could already feel his body heating up as Rin's hands clenched his shoulders, his heart thumping loud and fast. He tried to keep his eyes away from the redhead's as best he could, but this was hard to do as Rin kept bending down in attempt to see Haru's face.

"_Touch me more, touch me more!" _Haruka's mind shouted, the thought going over and over like a broken record, but he continuously tried to push it back. He couldn't let his thoughts get the better of him now; they're what got him in this situation in the first place.

"Haru, look at me!" Rin demanded, now feeling annoyed and aggravated at how the teen was acting.

Haruka shook his head, his eyes squeezed shut "No!"

Rin could feel his anger rising. All he wanted was to solve this whole issue with Haru, but the teen was making it so difficult. How the hell was he meant to converse with someone who wouldn't even look at him?!

"Haru just look at me! All I want to do is talk to you about all this!"

Said teen shook his head and kept his eyes shut "Well _I _don't want to talk about it! What I did was stupid and I should have never asked you to do that!"

"Do what?!" Rin questioned

"You know what!" Haruka stated, knowing full well that Rin had the answer to that question

Rin frowned at the response. He did know the answer, but he wanted Haruka to say it. He felt he'd cool down if Haru said it, so he retorted with "I won't know unless you tell me!"

"Let go of me!" Haruka responded, trying to get out of Rin's grip.

That's it, Rin couldn't take it. He tried to handle this conversation delicately but it was going nowhere. So he decided to get to the question he'd been dying to ask through the whole week.

"Why did you want to kiss me?!"

Haruka's eyes widened when he heard the deathly question, that was the one thing he didn't want to be asked. He had no idea how he could explain it to Rin, mostly because he didn't really understand it himself. So Haru just stayed quiet and kept his head down and eyes shut, maybe Rin would give up if he did that.

"…Haruka" said teen stiffened when hearing his name "please, I just want us to go back to normal. I know full well you're avoiding me, and you have no idea how much that pains me. So please, tell me"

Rin almost sounded like he was crying, so just to make sure he wasn't, Haruka opened his eyes. He was slightly shocked when seeing crimson red staring into him, but he noticed Rin's eyes were shining slightly.

So he really wanted to know that bad…?

"…I can't tell you, it wouldn't make a difference" Haruka finally confessed, making Rin sigh.

It wasn't really the answer he wanted, but it was good enough. Even so, Rin still wanted to push it a bit more.

"So why can't you tell me? Is it too embarrassing for you or something?"

"Because I…" Haruka hesitated, looking straight into crimson red eyes "It's…complicated. I'm not too sure myself"

Rin nodded and took his hands off the teen's shoulders. Then did that mean Haru was experimenting with his sexuality? It was the only possible reason Rin could come up with, there's no other explanation.

"Alright then, I believe you…sorry I lost my temper there, I know you don't like me yelling at you"

Haruka shook his head "It's fine, I understand why you're so mad and…I'm sorry too"

Rin raised a questioning eyebrow "For what?"

"For getting us into this whole situation" Haru answered, a light blush on his cheeks.

Rin smiled at the shy teen "Hey, I could've just rejected what you asked me that night. The fault is on the both of us"

Haruka stared into those shining crimson eyes, those eyes that always seemed to mesmerise him and fascinate him. Those eyes that always comforted him with their strong gaze, making him feel as if he was safe and warm around Rin.

It made Haru wonder why he had chosen Rin to be his object of affection. Why he had chosen Rin to be the one that makes his heart speed up and his eyes shine like dancing water reflecting the rays of the sun. Was it even something he could willingly chose, or does it just…happen?

As Haruka thought this, he subconsciously started moving towards Rin. His eyes looking hazy and clouded over in pure lust. It felt as if his movements weren't his own, like his mind was going against his body and telling him to move closer to the redhead.

Rin realised Haruka was slowly stepping towards him, and he noticed the teen looked as if he was completely off earth. So he began to move back and slowly raised his hands. The only time he had seen Haru completely dazed and mindless like this was when he'd see a pool or a large body of water.

"O-oi, Haru" Rin stuttered, continuing to step back as the teen got closer "Are you feeling okay?"

Haruka didn't answer, he just kept stepping forward. His eyes getting cloudier and cloudier, the only thought going through his head was _"I want to touch Rin, I want to touch Rin…"_

Rin felt sweat drip from his brow, he knew he wouldn't be able to control himself if Haru got closer. But at the same time, he wanted the teen to get closer. So his head just became a foggy, confused mess as he stepped back every so often.

"Hey Haru, I'm starting to think you don't know what personal space is" the redhead joked nervously, his hands still raised.

"I want to touch Rin…" Haruka suddenly blurted out, his mind lost completely.

Rin's eyes widened "W-what are you-"

In that moment, Rin forgot to step back, but Haruka still stepped forward. So, with lustful eyes and a cloudy mind, Haru leaned forward to reach his one objective, to touch Rin.

Now the two of them were standing there in complete silence with their lips on the other's. Haruka's eyes were closed while Rin's were wide and shocked, but very slowly his eyes began to droop, and he placed his raised hands on Haruka's cheeks as they closed completely.

They stood there like that for a few minutes, as if wanting to preserve the moment and never let it end. Haru could see fireworks once again, his heart was beating at a rapid pace and he felt as if he would melt in Rin's arms. He didn't think anything of it though, he was too caught up in the thought that he was touching Rin again, and that it just felt _so _right.

Rin almost couldn't believe what was happening, he wanted to straighten things out with Haru yet it ended in said teen kissing him. He didn't know if this was a good or bad thing, but he decided not to think about it and just enjoy the moment while it lasted.

Haruka wanted to touch Rin more, he wanted to deepen the kiss, he wanted to be completely indulged in Rin. So he began to move his hands around the redhead's firm, clothed chest and gripped his T-shirt to push more into him. Rin happily went along with it and moved his hands to the back of Haruka's neck, pushing them even closer together and making Haru moan slightly. The moment they were in felt so good, so perfect, that they forgot where they were. So the moment was soon ruined as two younger bystanders walked past them.

"Hey! Get a room you fags!" one of them called out, the other snickering beside him.

This woke both of them up, making Haru's eyes widen and push Rin off him. His blue eyes were no longer clouded in lust, but were now only filled with shock, horror and what looked like confusion.

"I-I'm sorry…" he stuttered, stumbling back slightly "I'm sorry, I'm sorry…I'm sorry!"

It was like Haruka was stuck on replay and wouldn't stop apologizing, and Rin tried to say something but the raven haired teen ran past him before he could. Rin turned to see Haruka running down the path at a rapid pace with his head down and refusing to look back.

"Haru!" he called out, not sure whether he should run after him or not.

The two younger teens beside him kept snickering and Rin growled, showing his sharp teeth at them "How about you two piss off and go waste your lives somewhere else?!"

The teens almost squealed in fear and ran off, leaving Rin to stand there by himself and think about what just happened.

Haruka had definitely kissed him, he didn't kiss Haru, Haru kissed him, yet the teen still ran off in embarrassment. Rin thought Haruka would have been mentally prepared for it or something but…guess not. They had yet to kiss without it ending awkwardly and one of them running off…well, if they would ever kiss again that is.

Rin blushed at the thought and combed a hand through his hair. Right now wasn't exactly the time to be thinking about these things, with exam season and all. So he knew he had to wait until the holidays to be able to properly talk to Haru.

The only problem was, Makoto clung to Haru like a leech, especially now considering Rin was _back _as Makoto had put it. So Rin sighed and started walking home, maybe all he needed was a good night's sleep, then maybe his brain would function properly and manage to solve things out…but for now he decided it would be best to let Haru run off, as the teen probably had a few things to think about himself.

For Haru, this couldn't be truer, as he ran as fast as he could go and didn't dare look back. Why did this always happen? Why did he always make things more awkward between the two of them? They were just about to go back to normal and then he…

Haruka shook his head and continued to run, there's no way Nagisa could help him with this. He knew Nagisa didn't really know much about these things either, and he couldn't even explain what happened with Rin. He just completely lost control of himself and _needed _to touch Rin.

Love was scary, terrifying, and he wanted nothing to do with it. So Haruka decided the only thing he could do was avoid Rin, like he was trying to do before, except this time he had to. He had to force himself to. Maybe if he distanced himself from Rin, then these feelings of love would go away.

He didn't know if it would work, but it was the only choice he had. Even if it was blatantly obvious to everyone that he was trying to avoid Rin, even if it made Rin miserable or sad, he _had _to do it. It was the only way they would get back to normal.

No matter how much it hurt him or Rin, he had to avoid the redhead at all costs…and Haruka knew that would be much easier said than done.

* * *

**Well wasn't that a fun ride? And I cannot get the thought out of my head of Haruka working at a seafood restaurant whyyyy?**

**I have already started writing up the next chapter, but I can make no promises on when it is going to come out. So you're just gonna have to hang tight!**

**Thanks for reading!**


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